Will Be Loved
by afallfromgracex3
Summary: Modern Day Konoha- Iruka is kidnapped by an organization after Sasuke Uchiha, who has to returned to Konoha to run from his past. In the event of finding Iruka, Sasuke falls in love with Naruto and drama insues! SakuLee, GaaNeji, Nejisasu, and Kakasasu.
1. My chest feels like its gunna cave,

Konoha was a small town lying the midst of a forgotten state in the absolute heart of nowhere. Infact, before the insident, few people, infact few people from neighboring towns had even heard of Konoha.

The worst part had been the suprise. They were normal; Konoha and everything in Konoha was normal up until then. Tears were spilled as well as blood. People started to lock their doors at night for the first time. They would walk on by instead of staying hello. Infact, after the insident, the people Konoha saw the others they had lived by each day of their lives strangly, as strangers.

_When he was sad, they say he was angry too._

"Kakashi let go of me!"

_But he never wished he was happy._

"Your not going to fight me on this. You can't."

_Because he blamed it on himself._

"_Fuck you_!"

"I'm just trying to help."

_There were people who loved him. The people who only wished he loved them back._

"I don't give a shit. You and I both know I'm fine!"

_But how could he love anyone eles_

"You'll be killed."

"Like anyone cares."

"I do."

"Yeah right. I'll keep telling myself that."

_When he didn't love himself._

"You can be such a brat, Sasuke."

"Shesh, you can be such a bitch."

_They wish they could help him._

"I need to bandage your wounds."

"Why do I even have to go, Kakashi?"

"Because I care for you, and I love you. Your like a brother to me.

"I don't love anyone."

_But nobody could. He wished to find that person._

"You'll be safe If I take you there. Much safer."

"How do I know he's not one of them?"  
"I know. He's a good man."

_He wished to love that person with all the love people felt for him. The unrequited love._

"Kakashi, what if they find me? What if they hurt me?"

"You'll be safe." He pulled the other into a hug. "Trust me."

_He was aware of a loving touch, and it was unreal._

"Sorry, Kakashi. I told you before. I don't trust anyone either."

"What ever you say, kid."

_He felt safer_

"We have to leave. You know Iruka: always be on time."

_when he didn't get close to people._

"Okay. Fine."

_If he never loved and never trusted_

"Has the great Uchiha Sasuke given up the fight?"  
_Such things would never happen to him again_

"You wish."

_And he would always be safe._


	2. Spinning down into a grave

The boy was hungry, and everyone who knew him knew he was rarely hungry.

So this was somthing he was not used to feeling. It was, though, not somthing he wanted too.

Thats probably the reason you could count all of his ribs through his shirt. He said he didn't need food or help. He could do it on his own.

Even if he needed help. Not to say though, that he wanted it.

"Kid, take care of yourself. And please, for the love of god, eat somthing."

Once he moved out of Kakashi's, he ate probably a couple meals a week, and much to his friend's unknowing, he had no money to buy any. But if your going to die anyway, who needs food for hell?

"Good-bye, Kakashi..." Sasuke said as he reached his hand tentitivly to his face and wiped his eye. Weather it was a tear, witch he severly doubted it was; he hadn't cried in fifteen years, or from the bitting cold, he would never know.

"Are you crying, Koiishi?"

"No!"

The masked man winked, and put the hood on his convertable.

"It's gunna rain, Sasuke!" The masked man yelled as he revved the engine. "Find Iruka's soon!"

"Okay. Bye." Sasuke's voice died down as he yelled out to Kakashi. Damn. He wished he had brought somthing-anything- more than a t-shirt and shorts. It was after all, November nearing December.

He could feel his stomach growling for food. Iruka. The name rang in his ears.

"It's been ten years and I can still picture your face. But Barely..." But he was sure he didn't look like that anymore. Nobody stayed suck in time for years. Nobody but him anyways.

Was Iruka still peppy and a little annoying?

Was he still over protective of his friends and a bit of a hardass?

Did he still remember Sasuke?

What did he look like? Was he now shorter than Sasuke?

Well, one thing was pretty much for sure, he was taller than Sasuke. Iruka had always been short, even back then, and even if Sasuke was full grown now, he probably wasn't as tall as Iruka.

Sasuke, a spindly man, stood shorter than mostly all of the people he had known in his life. Kakashi teased him for that. _Damn, Kakashi_.

Somtimes he hated that silver-haired bastard. But now was not one of those times.

Sauske Uchiha looked up at the sky, the exact color of Kakashi Hatake's hair. Anyone who passed him on the street could tell by his expression that he was missing somone.

Sasuke stuffed his reddened hands into his pockets and watched the clouds of his hot breath escape from his partly opened mouth. Iruka, Iruka...Iru...ka...a couple blocks down...damn, why wouldn't Kakashi just drop him off there? He answered his own question.

'Because I have things to do' Like what? Sleep and read porn until it was late enough to hit the clubs?

Sasuke sighed, slipping his hand out of his warm pockets reluctantly to read the note in Kakashi's scrawled font.

_What the hell dose this say?_

_Maby if I turn it sideways?  
If I look from an angle? Kakashi has the worst handwritting!_

_Upsidedown...Yes!_

He could make it out, but barley, and he squinted his ebony, almond-shaped eyes. There. A couple of streets down. Just a couple. Then Sasuke'd be out of this fucking cold once and for all.

* * *

There was a man who parked his car on the side walk of Sekio Lane.  
His presence was unnerving; his eyes would freeze your blood.

There was only one other one the street, a man with a breifcase standing and checking his watch. The tall, raven-haired man smirked, stepped out of his car and walked up to him.

"Excuse me...sir...can you tell me where Unoichi Street is?"

The man rolled his eyes._ Sigh._

"Sure, I guess. It's right past.." He thought for a moment. "It's right past Seiko Drive."

The buisness man looked back at the raven haired, but was shocked, if only for a moment, that the man had vanished.

* * *

A few streets down on a street called Unoichi, in a small modest apartment complex, stood a man.

Umino Iruka stood hovering above a stove, making a pot of ramen dangerously close to expiring. Well, there was no point in wasting it all, right?

After all, once Sasuke, the boy he has known from long ago arrived, he would be hungry. He knew the from his closest friend Kakashi Hitake that he ate very little, slept very little, and was always ready to fight.

"Just another one, I guess..." He sighed, thinking of Naruto. Tearing open the dotted mark on the ramen box and pouring the dry meso powder and hard noodles into a pot of bubbling water on the range, he knew that the blonde-haired young man would be here as soon as he smelt steeping ramen. Iruka took out another bowl and another half-box of ramen to pour into the pot. Damn, the kid could eat his share of Ramen.

But he loved Naruto, although the blonde was a bit annoying and pushy, like a son. He loved Kakashi, even if the silvery-haired man was kind of a pervert, as his best friend. And hopefully, when he got to reknindle memories with a cirtain raven-haired boy with plenty of his own issues, he would love him too.

"All the people in my life..." Iruka sat down in the light wooden chair and let the sunlight dace around his fetures.

He fiddled with his ponytail, undid it a few times, and then ran his finger over the thick scar around his nose.

He would never forget how he got that.

Not ever.

Neither would Kakashi.

He heard a timer go off and he stood to drain the noodles, slippinng on oven mits to not scald himself.

But he stopped cold.

He had woken up alone.

He had wondered into the kitchen in an empty apartment.

He was making ramen all by himself. But not anymore.

There was a presence that hovered around him, somwhat menecing.

"Leave."

He rid his hands of the oven mits and didn't bother to lift the pot off the burner.

"I said leave." Iruka clentched his fists until his knuckles brimmed white and he whirled around, face contorted in a snarl,only to be met with a gloved fist.

"The Uchiha's not here and neither is it..." Trailed one voice coming from his bedroom. Iruka felt a stab of pain trickle up his spine as blood gushed out from his mouth and nose. He lifted himslef off the cold tile floor, looking back at the spot inwhere his back had come incontact with the white cabinet.

"Where is he? Answer me, you fucking..." A older, more muscular man grasped Iruka Umino by the colar of his army jaket and made the younger man wince and lick the blood off his jawline.

"I don't know! He's not here..." Iruka stuttered. Why the hell were these people after him? And Sasuke?

Sasuke...

Iruka's side met the sharp edge of a kunai blade and he coughed up blood allover the clean white tile he had scrubbed this morning for when Sasuke arrived at aproximatly 9:30 that night.

But Sasuke never came. At least not in time.

Iruka Umino felt himself slipping in and out of consiousness from the lack of bloodloss..

"No...leave the boy alone..."

"Iruka Sensei!" Chimed a voice. The black-clad warriors perked up and signaled to eachother.

"Out. Now. We'll come back for Uchiha Sasuke. But grab him." He notioned to Iruka.  
"No! Iruka! A blonde-haired boy wearing an orange jaket came just in time to see the last glance of his sensei being taken by strange men into the cold, dark, night.

* * *

A tear slid down his face and he knelt in a puddle of his best friend's freshly spilt blood.

Sasuke Uchiha had been wandering for about an hour.

And kami, this was getting annoying. All these twists and turns and aly ways...it was all so confusing to the navy-and-beige-clad man.

His stomach growled on it's own account. Could this day get _any worse? _

He's past a Seiko Street.

Seiko Bulevard.

Seiko Avenue...

Seiko lane...

Sasuke's head was spinning.

"Hello, sir? Can you tell me where 556 Unoichi Street is?

The man pushed up his glasses and looked up for a moment before answering:

"Right past _**Seiko Drive**_. Your the second person to ask me that. To the left, just take a turn and your there." Sasuke's right eye brow twitched.

"Fuck you!" Sauske growled, storming off in a huff, leaving a very confused buisnessman staring behind him.

The founders of this small city Iruka lived in cirtainly weren't the most creative with names..

It was getting so cold Sasuke was shivering where he stood. He couldn't wait to get up to Iruka's nice, heated apartment. The frozen Uchiha, whose legs were aching by this point and was cursing about Kakashi's stupidity.

The rain. It was coming, blanketing Sasuke like a force to dark to be snow.

It always made Sasuke so sad, so hopless.

As he turned a left corner on Seiko Drive and came onto the first house on Unoichi Street, what he wanted would be the exact opposite of what he was going to receive. It was 9:40. He was now, officially, late. And he hated being late.

Finally, Sasuke saw it, and it was like a beam of light at 10:05.

556 Unoichi street, apartment complex.

He searched the pockets of his shorts-smart day to wear shorts-for the key to the building Kakashi had given him.

Not there. Sweatdrop...

He checked his jaket pockets. Sweatdrop...

No key. Damn. No apartment. Shit. And No warmth.

"DAMN IT!"

* * *

Naruto Uzimaki wiped a single tear off his cheek. He was about to shed some more, but he found no point in crying.

He stood up, in a dream like state, and took a mop out of the cabinet to clean up the blood when he started to sob uncontrolably.

* * *

"What the hell do you meen your going back!" Naruto hissed, glancing at the wall. "It's only been half and hour!"  
The stubby police man shook his head. Another shot Naruto a sympathetic look. He shifted unconfortably/

"This is the best we can do, kid." He said, going over his notes for about the billionth time that night. "There is barely any evidence." His tone changed, as if scolding Naruto for trying to mop up the blood. "Anyway, we have to get back to the station and process this data. We promise we'll call you if anything happens." Naruto nodded and jotted down his cell phone number.

As the men in the uniforms left, before he could cry some more, he heard a ear-splitting cry pierce the air.

"Who the hell are you?" Uzimaki grimmanced. Sasuke whirled around, with a snarl on his face. He stood up.

"I'm going to have to ask you the same question." Then somthing clicked in his mind.

"Iruka?" He hadn't seen Iruka in seven years, but it could be him...even if he looked alot like...Naruto...

"No, Stupid." The blonde haired boy's heart quickened as he spoke: "Do you know what happened to Iruka?"

"Tell me your name first, dobe." Why had he said dobe? Kami, this couldn't be him? Didn't he die?

"Sasuke?" The raven haired man blinked and cocked his head. "Naruto?"

"I thought you were dead..." Both boys said to the other at the same time. "But your here..." Naruto remebered Iruka's voice on the receiver: Naruto, I'm waiting for Kakashi's kid to get here. Needs a place to stay...  
"Were you supose to stay with Iruka?" Naruto questioned as Sasuke nodded. "What happened to him?"  
"Come upstairs and see for yourself."


	3. Eyes like pools of intricate lace

**I really wish I could formatt this right for once!**

**Oh Well, on with the story!**

**BankotsuChick**

"What the fuck happened here?" Sasuke questioned and he avoided droplets of blood from covering his shoes.

The only thing that could possibly come to his mind was Iruka.

"He's not dead, is he?" Naruto hung his head. "I don't...know..." Sasuke stepped into the kitchen and walked up to Naruto.

"What am I going to do?" He said.

"What do you meen?" Naruto questioned, heading for the door. Anyone could tell he didn't want to be in a

place that gave off such awful waves of sadness.

"You have no where to stay?" Sasuke shook his head. He would freeze to death when the tempurtures

reached zero that night and he would be alone, cold on the street and... he couldn't even think about it.

Naruto headed out the door with Sauske trailing behind him.

"You can always stay with me, you know." He didn't look Sasuke in the eyes. "I meen, until we find Iruka."

Sasuke shook his head. He was hungry, cold, and alone, but he'd rather spend the night outside

than stay at Naruto's place.

"I can take care of myself," He scoffed. "I don't need help- especially not from you." Naruto laughed and his eyes scaling Sasuke's thin frame.

"Then your doing a crappy job already." He pointed to Sasuke.

"Your so much scrawnier than when I last saw you. When you were twelve. I can see every one of your ribs, Sauske."

"I am...hungry...I guess...If thats what you call wanting somthing to eat..."

He stared up at Naruto, who was at least a foot taller than him. And he was muscular and by the looks of it,

alot better fed. He looked different from when they last met, better even. Naruto backed him against the wall.

"Your coming to my place. Let's go, you look freezing." Sasuke shook his head reluctantly.

"I told you...I can do it by myself!" He growled, like a cornered animal. He was becoming increasingly

uncomfortable.

"Do I have to _carry_ the great Sasuke Uchiha back to my apartment?" Sasuke twitched.

"Don't you _dare_, Naruto." He looked for a way to escape. He couldn't fight the man, he was a year or two older, not to mention stronger and well fed.

"Then come with me."  
"Make me." The raven haired boy retorted. Wrong choice of words, Sasuke relfected with anger as Naruto picked him up, bridal-style, down the flight of stairs.

"Put me down, you bastard!" Sauske snarled, but he hung onto Naruto as he headed down the steep stairs.

Naruto laughed a little again, but said nothing. He was slightly concerned, no matter how short and wirey Sasuke was, weighed so little.

"Why the hell are you laughing!" Sauske hit Naruto but it barley made him flinch.

Naruto dumped Sasuke in the back seat of his old, musty car.

"Buckle your seat belt, Sasuke."

"No! I'm getting out of your crappy car and back-" Naruto did it for him and climbed into his seat, locking the door.

"This is like kidnapping!"

"Your just a kid?"

"No...I meen...Agh!"

Naruto winked and revved the engine for his small rust-red car. Sasuke Uchiha...Hah.

It took longer than what Sasuke would have expected, about ten minutes, and when the got to the slightly beat down

apartment, Sasuke crossed his arms and pouted.

"Your so stupid, Sasuke, I meen..." He paused thinking of a way to persuade the Uchiha. "Do I have to carry you again?"  
"NO."

"Then. Get. Up. Sasuke." Naruto reached over to pick up Sasuke, who had deffiantly unbuckled himslef somepoint

during the car ride, and Sasuke tenced his fists.

"So what? Your going to hit me?"

"If I have to."

"Then I guess you will." Naruto lifted the light boy out of the car and Sasuke left his share of bruises on Naruto.

"I'm gunna drop you Sasuke." Sasuke continued to curse, but he latched on to Naruto's shoulders as he climbed up

the stairs and stopped hitting him.

He put the boy down lightly as Sasuke took in his surroundings.

"Kinda crappy, Naruto." Naruto ignored him and sat down on the couch with his head resting in his palms.

Sasuke stood for a few seconds before he decided to join him, but he sat as far

away from the blonde as possible, he might as well acted pissed off even if he was over it.

"Your worried about Iruka."

Naruto smiled but still didn't look Sasuke in the eyes.

"How do you know?"  
"I know things."

There was a long, slightly akward silence. Naruto studdied Sasuke for a moment.

"I can't beleive it's been so long." He reflected. "How old are you again?"

"Do the math. If I was tweleve then and it's been-"

"Just tell me."

"Nineteen."

"Just turned twenty one. Hah."

"Fuck off. So your older than me. Like I care."

"And taller."

"Hmph. Your so annoying. Like always."

Naruto shook his head and was about to retort, but Sasuke stood up. To his suprise, he slowly stumbled to the floor.

"Good thing I carried you," Naruto said, rushing over to Sasuke, who's navy blue shirt was stained with blood.

"What the hell happened to you?" Damn, Kakashi. He had never bandaged his wounds properly...

"Holy fuck!" Naruto had placed a hand on Sasuke's side and now had a red print on his hand.

He picked Sasuke up again, who suprisingly didn't protest, and put him back on the couch.

"Stay." Sasuke grumbled, but out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw him wince in pain.

Naruto returned with a bandadge and somthing elese Sasuke couldn't get a good enough glimpse of.

Sasuke reched out his hand to take it from Naruto to do it himself, but Naruto held it out of his reach.

"No. You have to learn, Sasuke, that somthings you can't do by yourself."

Sasuke growled and was about to protest when Naruto said abruptly:

"Take off your shirt."

Sasuke blushed to his suprisment, but obeyed before Naruto 'did it for him', and took off the blue sweatshirt. The thin, cotten, white undershirt had a large tear in it and

Blood seeped through a wound that seemed terribly large.

Naru took a cloth and dabbed the blood away. Sasuke bit his lip until it almost bled from trying to stop

himself from yelping like a wounded puppy.

"Hold still."

Sasuke, in all his life, had no one to take care of him besides Kakashi. It made him feel

akward, and he blushed again. Naruto applyed a thick bandadge to a somwhat small, but deep

wound and gave Sasuke his shirt back. Sasuke took it slowly with two fingers.

"I'll put that in the wash. In the meen time, you can pick out a shirt of mine to wear."

Sasuke stood up, finding it somwhat easier to walk, and wandered into Naruto's bedroom.

He picked his way through his dresser, eyeing a small black, plain t-shirt. It didn't look like

it would fit Naruto and Sasuke, being a much smaller person, tried it on,

being more content when it fit.

He found Naruto in a kitchen empty off food, talking on the phone to a 'Sakura Haruno'.

Sakura...that name sounded firmilliar...Sasuke pushed the notion away and turned to face Uzimaki,

and when Naruto saw him he smiled, said his good-byes, and plugged the phone into a charger.

Both boys sat on the couch in the small living room.

Sasuke hated the silence that was still going on after ten minutes.

"I should probably call Kakashi. Tell him what

happened, you know. To Iruka..."

"Sure. Go ahead. I don't have a home phone, but my Cell's on the table." He juestured to the small kitchen. Sasuke

nodded and fallowed his directions. He unpluged the charging black and red cell phone, very little battery, but that

should have been enough to make a quick call to Kakashi's apartment.

He flipped open the phone and noted one new voice mail. It had been made thirty five seconds prior.

"Naruto, you have a voice mail. Says...it's from..."-Sasuke squinted. "-Iruka!"

"Put it on speaker and listen!" Sasuke nodded and opened the message. A very static voice played, but it was

unmistakably Iruka Umino, even to one who hasn't seen him in years.

"H-help...please...blood...S-Sasuke..." It became static and indesipherable. Sauske turned up the volume.

"Y-you Bastard!" There was a couple of coughs and a spine-chilling scream before the line when dead.

Owari...

"Naruto..." He restrained himself from saying 'I'm so sorry...' Or somthing fluffy. But he wanted to, and that slightly disgusted

him. Naruto placed a arm around Sasuke, pulling him close. He stood up and said with undeniable sadness:

"I know we didn't know eachother for more than two years, and I havn't seen you in years...Sasuke, your my closest

friend now..." Sasuke refrained from scoffing and stood still, barley breathing.

"I-I meen I have other friends...it's just..." He backed away from Sasuke and headed out the door.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going out." He stepped into the doorway. "But Narut-to I don't have a-" SLAM. "-Car." He plopped down

on the couch. He was confined here, unless he could walk somwhere...

Forget. It... Damn. And ontop of everything, he was still hungry.

Sasuke sighed and decided this disgusting stye of an apartment would need cleaning.

It took an hour and a half and Naruto still wasn't home. Damn him.

Sasuke yawned and and lay on the couch, for just a moment, to clear his head. He couldn't help feel the slightest

bit worried about the blonde haired boy, but he quickly slipped into unconsiousness.

"Naruto, you bastard!"

Sasuke had fallen alseep on the couch, to tired to go out and eat somthing, and to cold to even bother thinking

about it much. He had just lay on the couch...falling asleep...and then a scream?

Sasuke sat up and tried to smooth his messed hair, just as a girl, slightly taller than him, walked into the room

"Who the hell are _you_?"

He growled. Damn, this girl wasn't in the mood to solcialize. Her pink hair was fluffed up

in rage and she glared at Sasuke. He gulped.

But she blinked and her shoulders fell. It can't be Sasuke. He went away with Kakashi and they had Sasuke

had died...

"S-sakur-ra?" He rubbed his eyes. "Sasuke-kun!" She squeeled in excitment, and hugged him, but was suprised

when she could almost pick him up.

"Why are you so scrawny, Sasu-kun?" She took a good look at Sasuke and around Naruto's apartment.

"Where's Naru-chan?" She questioned, and Sasuke only shrugged. "And why were you asleep in his apartment?"  
Sasuke scoffed and answered with anger, weather it was directed twards Sakura or Naruto, he wouldn't know.

"Well, I don't know if you've heard, but I was suppose to stay with Iruka. But He's gone missing at the moment

and Naruto took the news...not so well."

"Do you blame him?" Sasuke sighed and continued.

"And then he left."

"But why are you here at Naruto-kun's place?" She looked around. "I've never seen it this clean before! Did

you do this?" Sasuke nodded.  
"I didn't have anywhere to stay so Naruto _kindly_"-He remembered when Naruto had picked him up-"offered."

"Well I payed Naruto's cell phone bill last month and I need the cash. I swear, he's procrasinats _so long_.

He's as sly as a fox, that one. I should have never expected him to pay me back."

Sasuke nodded.

"Any idea where he might be?"  
"No! I just arrived in Konoha! It's been HELL ever since I got here!" Sakura stepped back as Sasuke fumed.

She thought a moment and reflected on Naruto's personality.

"I bet he's at the bar." Sasuke shook his head knowing she was right. "With Kiba, Shikimaru, Neji...and the

rest of the guys.

"By now he'd probably drunk out of his skull."  
"We'd better hurry then."

"Do you have a car?"

"No. Don't remind me."

"I have a small one out front. C'mon. We'd better hurry."

"Can I get somthing to eat on the way please? I'm starving-"

"We don't have time for that, Sasuke."

Sasuke looked at the time. It was 1:00 exactly.

Then the two headed out the door into one cold, frosty night.


	4. Shining beauty brims disgrace

"Six!"

"Seven!"  
"Eight!"

"GO NARUTO!"

They found him in a circle of chanting guys, Rock Lee, Sakura's boyfriend, Kiba, and Shikimaru. As usual, Gaara and

Neji, who were, for the most part, just sitting and watching

"Naruto what the hell do you think your doing!" Sakura burst in, dragging Sasuke, who was protesting.

"Jeeze lighten up, Sakura! It's not everyday Naruto will come and party with us!" Kiba shouted, holding up

a bottle. Sakura winced.

"Who's the rat?" Gaara commented, making his way over to Sauske. Ino fallowed him.  
"Hey look! He looks like Sasuke!" Lee shouted.

"Baka, it's not Sasuke, he's dead!" Somone eles commented.

"It is Sasuke, dumbass! Right Sasuke?" Ino questioned. Sasuke nodded slowly.  
"Yay it's Sasuke!" She hugged him quite brutally and Sasuke felt his windpipe tighten. Shikimaru rolled his

eyes and grunted.  
"Ino are you planning on cheating on me with Sasuke? I meen look at him! He's so scrawny it looks like he

hasn't eaten in-" _Hiccup._ "-Fuckin' forever!"

"Can you even drink yet, Sasu?"

"I'm 19. And Naruto-" He shook Naruto. "-You are coming home. _Now_." Naruto was totally obliviouse and

drunk another shot glass that had been filled and placed on the counter infront of him.

"Who are you? His wife?" Shikimaru asked and turned to Ino.

Kiba stared at Sasuke. Damn it! Now they would all-

"Sasukeeee and Narutooooo s-sitting in a treeeee!" The boys all chanted. Somwhat more sober people rolled their eyes.

"K-I-S-"

"SHUT UP!" Sasuke blushed furiously. He was about to retort some more, but Kiba noticed his blush.

"He's blushing!" Kiba howled with laughter.

"AM NOT!"

"ARE TOOOOOOO!"

"You even clean his apartment!" Sasuke glared at Sakura who shrugged. "Couldn't help it!"

"Your such a giiiiirrrrlll Sasuke!"

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

Sakura continued to laugh, but then she focued on Naruto.

"But seriously, Naruto, you gotta come home. Your gunna pass out."

"Okay!" Naruto sung. "Leeeeet's gooooOo!"

"Help me Sasuke." Sasuke nodded and took one of Naruto's arms.

"C'mon Sasuke! Have a drink with us!"  
"I don't have any money, damn you. And I'm only 19-"

"Your Naruto's _girlfriend_ so we can pick up the tab." Neji commented sarcasticly, waving a few bills inches away from Sasuke's face. Sasuke raised a hand.

"So what? Your going to 'slap' me like a little girl?" Lee doubled over with laughter.

Sasuke was shoved into a chair and given a full shot glass and he downed it like he was a man who hadn't had water in days.

"Yay!" Naruto shouted "Sasuke-kun's gunna joooooiiinnn us!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Another drink came Sasuke's way. He tentivly picked it up.

"Do I have to-" hiccup. "-help you Sasuke?" Naruto swivvled his chair so he was facing Sasuke.

"You gunna kiss your girlfriend, Nary?" Kiba teased. Sasuke twitched, and got out of his tall seat.

He looked up at Kiba, grinning stupidly.

"ITS. NOT. FUNNY. ANY. MORE." He hissed. Kiba turned away while Sasuke drank another glass,

stil twitching slightly, and a warm tingly feeling snaking its way through his body.

Less than half an hour later, Sasuke's throbbing head was resting face down on the table. He sat up, looking around the now empty bar. Neji and Naruto, and one angry Sakura sat on the barstools.  
"W-why is Neji still here?" Sasuke said, rubbing his eyes.

"I had nothing better to do than to watch you get smashed." Neji retorted. Sasuke stuck his tounge out at him.

"Your so stupid, Uchiha. Maby you should have stayed dead."

"I-I-" Sasuke stopped. He felt so dizzy...he tryed to hop off the stool, but he fell, and not having the reflexing to catch himself, he fell into Neji's arms.

"Would you mind taking this, Sakura?" Neji pointed to Sasuke, but Sakura was tending to Naruto, who at least

had the decency to stand up without falling to an old enemies arms. He did, however, have to hold onto the stool.

"Sasuke I can't believe you!" Sakura reprimanded. "How could you be so stupid?"

"Will everyone stop calling me stupid?"  
"Maby if you stopped acting it, Uchiha." Neji was still holding Sasuke. Sasuke tried to push him away but Neji held him fast.

"Do you want to trip again?"

"If it meens getting away from you!"

Neji let him go and Sasuke fell on the spot.

"Told you."

"Whydoyoualwaysactsosmart,youdumbass." Sasuke slurred his words and stood up shakily. He was swaying a little and he reeked of alcohal. But Naruto was far worse off.

Sakura sighed. "Let's go." Neji nodded as he help the two drunk men to their car.

It was a short drive. Sasuke has taken the ride in Neji's car. He let the drunk Uchiha onto the street where Sakura was waiting with a key.

"Neji!" Sasuke called as he hopped into his flashy new car.

"Have fun with Naruto, Sasuke..."

"I just remembered I hate you!" Neji raised an eyebrow as Sasuke flipped him off.  
Damn Uchihas. Just then, as Neji drove off to his place, he remembered how much he _hated_ doing nice

things for other people.

Especially that damn Uchiha.

Sasuke stumbled into the apartment, almost falling again, half expecting that Hyuuga to catch him.

But it was Naruto.

"NarutoI'mreallytiredwheredoIsleep?" Sasuke asked, eyelids drooping. Naruto cocked his head and showed him the couch. He heded twards the kitchen. Sasuke fallowed him, still pestering him about where he would sleep.

"What the hell are you doing?" The yawn was contagious. Naruto was going through the cabinets, tossing things

around. Sasuke tolerated this for a brief moment until a loaf of bread met his face.

"What the fuck are you doing Naruto?" Naruto ignored him until Sasuke threw the bread back.

"Lookin for more booze." Naruto looked through the fridge and found two thirds of a six pack of beer in the fridge.

"YESSS!" He opened one quickly, tossing one to Sasuke, who fumbled with it, then eventually dropped it.  
"Damn." He picked it up, opened it, and took a swig.

"You don't have a spare bedroom? And I'm still kinda hungry, Naruto.

Naruto yawned while he shook his head.  
"Any spare blankets?" Naruto made the gesture for 'no'.  
"Uchiha,youcomplainlikeabitch." Naruto said, looking around for more blankets. It was, after all true, the apartment was

an icebox. Naruto Sasuke shivered just thinking about it.

"Naruto your so damn annoying. How can you not have any extra blankets. Dobe."

Naruto twitched, and continued drinking.

"I meen you seriously gotta think once in a while. Like normal people."

He took a swig.

"Almost like Neji. Did I mention I _hate _that prissy-assed hyuuga?"

"You hate everyone, don't you." Sasuke shot a glare.

Naruto twitched again. He opened another beer, and mumbled a warning to Sasuke, a soft:

"_Shut up_." Sasuke heard, but of corse, being the baka he is, continued. He felt somhow, like insulting Naruto-chan would help his own probablems.

"What dose Iruka think of you?"

Naruto twitch spasmaticly, and when Iruka's name reached his ears, he looked Sasuke in the eyes, who smirked.

"Maby thats why he left..."

"Sasuke!" Naruto growled, standing up to the Uchiha, rolling up his sleeves and pressing the skinny Uchiha to the wall, on hand on his neck, one on his chest. He could feel Sasuke's heartbeat through his thin shirt.

Sweatdrop.

"Why do you have to be such a damn jerk?" Sasuke tried to push him off but he held Sasuke fast.

"What now? You gunna kill me?" Sasuke wasn't smiling anymore.  
"It's like you take out all your damn problems on me! You can get your own damn blanket! You can get your own _damn place_!"

"It's not that! I'm sorry, I just-"

"No your not!"

"Yes I am!"  
"Prove it!"

"Your sure you want me to?"

"God, yes! If your going to live with me and not be a stupid bastard, show me!"

Sasuke gulped.

"Forget it. Now let me go. I'm staying at Neji's."

"I though you said you 'hated that prissy-assed hyuuga'."

"Dosn't meen I won't stay with him to get away from you."

"Your not going anywhere, Sasu-kun."  
"Why the hell not?"  
"Because your broke, drunk off your ass, and you don't have a car. Plus, it's 2:00 in the morning."

Sasuke knew it was true.  
"Fine, you stupid bastard."

Naruto took one of the blankets on his bed and threw it at Sasuke, who, obviously, didn't catch it.

Sasuke groaned, picked it up, and sat on the couch.

"Can you keep the closet light on?"

"Why Sasuke? You scard?"

"No!"

"Prove it!"

"Fine, shut it off!"

Naruto shut it off, slipped into a pair of orange flannel pants and a tight white t-shirt.

Sasuke didn't bother to change. His eyes trailed Naruto to his room where the figure dissapered and the lights grew dimmer and dimmer until the room was completely black.

It was no more than an hour later when Sasuke found himself awake and shivering on the pleather couch, the blanket nowhere in reach in the pitch darkness.

Damn. The lightswitch was...where again?

Sasuke sat up reluctantly and wrapped his arms around his slim frame.

He found a doorway after a little bit of searching and opened it. It was Naru-chan's bedroom.

"Naruto?" Sasuke whispered, not believing what he was about to do.

"Mnn?" Naruto grumbled. Sasuke gulped.

"Can I sleep with you? I'm freezing my ass off in here."

"Yea, sure whatever."

Sasuke climbed on the twin sized bed and snuggled in the covers.

"Naruto?"

There was a somwhat uncomfortable heat betweeen the two that bother Sasuke slightly.

"Mnnn?"  
"I'm sorry for being an ass." There was a pause.

"S' fine." Naruto subconsiously slid an arm around Sasuke. Sasuke shifted and almost pushed him away,

but didn't. This time he fell right alseep. But who's to say that, though, he slept soudly.

_All Sasuke could see was a boy._

_He was standing there, in the rain, alone._

_Totally alone. He felt waves of sorrow drowing him._

_"What's wrong?" Sasuke said, tilting the boy's head up to face his._

_It was himself. Sasuke stumbled back, breathing heavily. Nobody noticed. The boy kept _

_crying, kept staring into the grey, pouring abyss._

_Sasuke was like a ghost. Weightless. Air. Nothing._

_"Mama...papa...needn't have died."_

_"What?" He question was unheard._

_"It's all my fault."_

_"It's all...my ...fault..." Sasuke sat down and put his head against his knees and let the_

_rain wash away his vision. All love. All hate. All sadness. The rain kept coming until _

_Sasuke couldn't feel anything at all._


	5. Like cinderslain by your own cigar

"SASUKE HOW COULD YOU?"  
Sasuke awoke with a joilt and all his muscels tenced. There, in the doorway, was quite a shocked pink haired

girl, the sorce of the awkening noice.

"What the hell Sakura?" Sasuke blinked a couple of times, he tried to get up but relized he couldn't.

Somthing was stopping him. Sasuke looked around. Naruto Uzimaki was lying somwhat ontop of him,

fast asleep.

"Sakura?" Naruto stretched and in doing so got up and looked up in confusion, blinking. As Naruto sat up, their was less weight on him so Sasuke pushed him off and Naruto hit his head on the corner of the bedpost.

"Arg, you bastard!"  
"Your the bastard Naruto! I knew I shouldn't have left you alone in a cold apartment, drunk off your asses!"

"What's your problem, Sakura?"

"MY PROBLEM?"

"YES, _YOUR_ PROBLEM! Ah, my head!"

"Hungover bastard." Sasuke mumbled but then clutched his forehead.

"My Problem is that you did my best friend! And he's a GUY like you!" Tears welled up in her eyes and

he balled her hand into fists. Yep, those were deffinatly tears of pure anger. But Sasuke couldn't help

fidgeting and blushing uncontrollably. It was then he noticed that his shirt he had borrowed

from Naruto was missing. He covered himself with the duvet.

"Excuse me, Sakura! I'm here too you know!" She looked upset, but quickly turned pissed-off again.

"If anyone did anyone-and I'm deffianly not saying they DID- I would do Naruto!"

Naruto growled. "Yea right, SasUKE!" Sasuke twitched in anger but couldn't help another blush.

As if his face could turn _more_ red.

"W-well your name dosn't exactly scream seme to me!"

"Well at least it dosn't _scream _uke!"

Sakura closed her eyes, but when the fighting didn't stop after she counted to ten, she opened her eyes.

"WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT!"

A pink-haired girl seethed.

She shoved Naruto into the side-table and bent down to touch Sauske throbbing forehead.

She looked down at her flip-flops with dissapointment and a slightly broken heart when Sasuke pushed her

away. He his spotted his missing garment and grabbed his tight black shit and balled it up in his palms.

Sakura winced when she spotted all his ribs under his pale, thin skin.

"So nobody did it with anyone, Sasu-kun?"

Just then, as if it would get any worse, Neji peeked his head throught the doorway.

"Hey Sakura, Lee and I got tired of waiting in the car so we-"

He looked at Sakura with steam almost coming out of her ears and shitless Sasuke blushing while Naruto rubbed his head.

"...Oh Shit..."

Lee walked in that moment.

"Hey Saku-chan I-" He look down at Naruto, comprehending the situation first.

"SO, Naruto!" He elbowed Naruto and beemed at Sasuke. "We were right at the bar."

"Looks like you did have some fun, Uchiha." Naruto blinked and looked around, not fully understanding the

situation.

"It's not what you think, It's-"

Lee elbowed Sasuke who moved unintentionaly twards Naruto who blushed as he relized his arm

was now around Sasuke's slim shoulders. The Uchiha went wide-eyed and blushed even _more._

"OKay, I don't really know whats going on except for the fact that alot of your are twitching, Sasuke

and I are hung over assholes, and somone's doing somthing with Sasuke."

"You banged Sasuke-" Sasuke glared. "- you strange Bastard."

"NO WE JUST SLEPT!"

"Togather." Naruto thought about it and then blinked.

"Yea! I meen...thats...what you...meen...by...slept..."  
"Okay you clueless assholes. I got cold and went to sleep in Naruto's bed. End of Story."

"So that explains shirtless, blushing and-" Sasuke tried to get up but fell down with a 'ow!'

"-and sore out of his mind Sasuke?" Neji raised an eyebrow.

"Sasuke's sore because he has injuries!"

"Metal ones."

"No!" Sasuke turned around to show them his bandadge on the opposite side, and then pulled on the shirt.

"See?"

Then they all nodded, but not looking terribly convinced, but Neji breathed a: "What ever."

Lee nodded. "Come on, let's go. If were gunna meet Shikamaru and Gaara, we'd better hurry."

Sakura gave Sasuke one last you-better-not-do-anything-innapropriete-with-Naruto-while-I'm-gone look and

headed out the door.

"Wait, Sakura!" Naruto yelled. She returned. "What is it?"

"Um what are you doing with Shikamaru and the others?"

"Were going out to eat, dumbass. It's already 2:30 and we havn't had lunch. So do me and favor and get yours and Sasuke's lazy asses out of bed?"

"Can do."

"Great. Bye Sasu-chan!" She winked at Sasuke who grumbled in returned.

"Damn those guys, am I right? Especially Sakura, I meen she flirts with you but she's going out with Lee." Sasuke nodded and got up.

"I'm going to get somthing to eat. I'm _starving_."

Naruto fiddled with his drawstring belt and got up to go join Sasuke.

But he moved like a ghost, the only thing on his mind being Iruka.

"I never got the time to call Kakashi. I'm going to do that."

"Yea, I'm gunna head out soon too, so hurry up. We don't have any food." Sasuke rolled his eyes and picked up the cell.

"You know you really should get a home phone."

"I'll get to it eventually, okay?"

Sasuke dialed Kakashi's number and heard the dial tone quickly fill his ears.

"Kakashi speaking."

"Um, hi Kakashi. It's Sasuke."

"Whats up?"

"Well it's kinda important."

"What, your not getting along with Naruto? Iruka kick you out already?"

"No, you ass. It is Iruka though. He's...well...I don't know if he's still alive." Sasuke could feel Kakashi's blood freeze through the line, but the older man kept cool.

"How do you know, Sasuke-kun."

"I didn't see, but I strongly believe it has somthing to do with me."

"As do I."

"I don't know what to do. I can't let him die because of me."

"I'll call you back Sasuke. I have a call on the other line."

"Okay. Bye."

He knew that though, even if Kakashi was so colective, he was having a hard time.  
And no one was on the other line.

"Sasuke-kun! I'm leaving!"

"NO WAY IN HELL, NARUTO."  
"What?" Said the blonde, slightly supprised at the reaven-haired boy's reaction.

"Last time you left and took the only car, I was left with nothing to do but clean your apartment. And then, of all things, get intoxicated."

"Sheesh, you get so over-reacted somtimes."

"YOUR staying. I want some time by myself, and I'm sure that you need it too."

"Your taking my car?"

"Exactly."

"Fine."

"Give me the keys." Naruto dug into his pocket and tossed Sasuke the ring of keys.   
"Thanks. What do you need again?"

"Milk, bread...ramen...all the basics. I wouldn't mind...ice cream or somthing."

"Got it."  
"Have fun." She said sarcasticly.

"Don't worry about me. I will." Even more sarcastic.

Sasuke stopped in the doorway. "Can I borrow a jaket?"

"Didn't you come here with anything?"

"I forgot my stuff in Kakashi's car."

"Well buy some more." Naruto handed Sasuke a couple of bills for food and cloths.

"Oh and take this." He handed Sasuke a master card. Sasuke nodded.

"Okay, fine. Bye."

Naruto sighed. Now that he was used to having a room-mate, things could get so lonenly when Sasuke wasn't here. He decided to call Neji.

"Wanna come over?"  
"Why?"

"Because Sasuke's out and I don't have anything to do. Thats why."

"Fine. Hinata's in town, by the way. We're goingout to dinner tonight to catch up. Your invited. Sasuke-kun too."

"Thanks, I'll be there."

Half and hour later Neji was over and they both sat on the couch to watch a DVD Neji had brought.

"So what's up with you and Sasuke?" Neji asked in a somwhat bord tone about a quarter of the way

through.

"Nothing."

"I meen this morning."

"Neji!"

"Your blushing. You doing 'like' Sasuke do you?"  
"NO!"

"Naruto..."

"Just drop it, okay! I told you a long, long time ago like 10 years ago, that I loved Sakura. End of story."

"Yea, but Sasuke's pretty girly."

"True. But so are you." Neji scowled.

" The Point is I'm not in love with Sasuke."

"Got it."

"Do you really?"

"...Yes..."

"Listen Neji." He turned to face the Huuyga who was now absently muching on buttered popcorn.

"Do you think I like Sasuke, truthfully? I meen, c'mon. I'm like one of the straitest guys you'll ever know."

Neji nodded.

"Do you think I'd do you just because you look like a girl?" Neji shuddered. "Let's hope not."

Naruto smiled and played the movie.

"Damn, I'm hungry." Sasuke mumbled as he pushed a full cart around the supermarket.

He couldn't remeber the last thing he had eaten.

He looked around for bread, the last thing on the list, and as he picked it up he spyed somthing.

It was large, brown and the most chocolate-covered thing he had ever seen.

Chocolate cake: 12.95$

Sasuke looked at the card in his hand. He picked it up and put it in the cart.

_I try to fill that void _

_The one that makes me so empty._

_So empty all the time._

_I can't do it by myself._

_And I hate myself for that_

_Because I need your help_

By the time he had parked the car by Naruto's apartment, less than a eighth of the cake was left. He used his hands to quickly stuff the rest in his mouth, not bothering to wipe the excess chocolate off his face.

Neji walked out the door at the moment Sasuke opened it. They bumped heads, then each boy turning to the other with a snarl.

"Damn Huuyga." Sasuke blushed, rubing his forehead. He was still hungry.

"What's on your face, Uchiha?" Neji traced the Chocolate smudge on Sasuke's cheek.

"Um, nothing. Why were you at Naruto's, you bastard."

"We were watching War of the Worlds. Never got to catch it in thearters. I had to go early though, cuz my cousin Hinata's flying in and visiting."

"I remember her."

Neji opened his car door. "Your going out to dinner with us tonight with Naruto, just to let you know."

Sasuke blinked. "Try not to stuff your face with Chocolate, Uchiha."

"Who said we were going out to-" SLAM. Neji drove off.

Sasuke sighed, took the grocieries out of the trunk, opened the door to Naruto's building and took the elevator to the fouteenth floor.

_Knock, Knock, knock._

Neji had gotten Naruto thinking. He didn't love Sasuke, right? Even if the Uchiha was hotter than Sakura.

But Sasuke cirtainly didn't love him.

Well, there was only one way to find out.

_Knock, Knock, Knock._

"Who is it?"

"I come bearing groceries. Now open the door."

Naruto gulped. People in his life had the worst timing.

He opened the door to fine Sasuke, chocolate on his face, arms stuffed with bags of food.

Naurto took them from Sasuke and put them on the counter.

"Don't bother putting them away. I'll do it later tonight."

Sasuke nodded.

"Did you find anything to wear?" Sasuke nodded. "I went to the nearest mall and put about two-fifty on your charge card. He left for a breif moment to go get the clothing out of the car."

"Two fify for one outfit?"

"Yea. There was nothing eles."

"Okay then. But you owe me. Get changed and we can go. Neji said he'll be here at 6:00. It's already 5:00."

"We have an hour."

"Time gose by faster than we think." Naruto mumbled, shuffling into his room.

Sasuke quickly slipped on a pair of slightly ripped jeans with a navy blue blazer and a tight white t-shirt showing underneath.

Naruto wore his usual orange sweat shirt with a pair of dark jeans.

"I can't believe you could spend so much on cloths." He examined Sasuke's outfit. "It's a little big, but I guess everthing would been on you since you so scrawny. Sauske huffed.

"But you look nice!" Sasuke blushed. "I know. You too."

"Do you want somthing to eat first?"  
"We're about to eat."

"But you were complaining about eating for the longest time."

"I guess."

"So...ramen it is?"  
"Ramen it is then."

"Did you get ice-cream?"

"Yes."

"Ramen and Ice-cream."

Naruto dished out vanilla ice-cream into small white dishes as the ramen steeped. Sasuke placed the spoon on his tounge, licking it off slowly and thoughtfully.

Naruto watched him do so. There was somthing slighly unnearving about it, it made him feel...strange.

Sasuke wasn't the cleanest eater. Now, ontop of chocolate, there was white smudges on his face and fingers.

After the ice-cream was out of the dish, he worked on licking it off his fingers, until he saw brightlly colored

blue eyes staring at him intently.

Naruto couldn't understand this. It was Sasuke, just Sasuke. Naruto decided then Sasuke should probably stop licking.

"What?"

"Nothing."  
"Okay then." Naruto took the ramen and put it in two bowles and placed one infront of Sasuke.

He settled for just wiping his fingers on a napkin and then ate the ramen sloppily with a spoon, half wishing he could devulge his entire face into the bowl of meso, chicken and vegetables.

"Sasuke your getting it all over your cloths."

"Shit."

"And on your face."

Naruto stood over Sasuke.

"Do I have to help you?"

"I don't need help from anybody."

Sasuke covered it and put it in the sink. He headed out the door.

"C'mon dobe. I'm getting in the car."

"Wait Sasuke."

"Let me help you get it off your face."

"Fine! Jeeze."

Naruto took his finger and bent down to wipe it with his fingers.

"Hold still, dumbass." Naruto was so close Sasuke could feel his breath on his face.

"Your the...dumbass." Sasuke felt his heart beat quicken and a blush rising in his cheeks. He pushed Naruto away, went into the bathroom only to come back perfectly clean.

Sasuke surly made a mess but could always clean it up to look perfect.

The story of his life.

_Its raining_

"Sasuke, hold on a second, I'm looking for the keys."

_Like whent they died.._

"Did you find them?"

_It's all my fault. I don't deserve to cry._

"No."

_Yet I still do._

"I'll check my pockets, Naru-chan."

_But when I am in the rain, how can you tell I am crying?_

"Damn, I can see if I dropped them in all this rain."

_How do you know I exist at all?_

"Sasuke I have no idea where they are! Damn it!"

_And dose it really...matter?_

"It's really downpouring. Here, thats a new outfit. Take my jaket."

_Can you feel my heart beat?_

Naruto drapped the jaket around Sasuke, who felt him self moving closer to the blonde.

"Sasuke...your freezing."

"No, I'm...not i'm...uhhh...hungry."

"Still?"  
_Can you? Can you save me?_

"Yes..."

Naruto smiled. He could feel Sasuke's heartbeat through his shirt.  
_Can you wipe away those tears on my face and in the sky?_

"You still have something on your face." He started to wiped it off, coming even closer.

_Those tears._

Sasuke mumbled somthing as closed his eyes as Naruto quickly brushed his lips to his.

It was just a quick touch, possibly a ghost. Naruto smirked and whispered slowly to Sasuke. The breath

sent shivers down the Uchiha's spine.

_The hated tears I blamed on my self_

"Its...just like when we you were 12...but it's not an accident." Sasuke blushed.

_Now I know that those were never tears. They tears stopped the day I met you._

"Naruto..." Sauske opened his eyes slowly.

"What?"

_It was just the rain._

"I found the keys."


	6. Tried too hard taken it too far

""Damn those guys."

"You don't have to get angry, Neji-ne-san. It's quite alright."

"But now everybody's waiting."

"I'm sure they don't mind either."

"Then your wrong, Hinata-dono." Sakura grumbled. It was quite a fancy restraunt, and Sakura had avoided eating for most of the day, save breakfast of corse, because she was looking forward to a large dinner with all her best friends togather. Sasuke and Naruto. Those two were probably hung over or still drinking more in Naruto's apartment. And they would show up scragly and wet

and completely embarrassing.

Sakura fiddled with her tied up hair and straitened the napkin in her lap.

They better get here soon. She looked over. Shikimaru was talked quietly to Ino and Gaara was sitting

between Kanrurro and Temari while watching Chouji struggle to help himself from eating his plate/

"Are you still hungry, Sasuke-kun?" Sasuke smiled and burried his head in Naruto's jaket.

"You wouldn't think so, would you." He mumbled agaist the jaket. Sasuke was about to kiss Naruto again, but Naruto broke his embrase. He eyed the time on his digital watch.

"Damn it! It's 6:45!"   
"What?"

"Your heard me! Get in the car!"

"Wha-" Naruto got out and litterally pushed Sasuke through the door.

"Naruto!"

"Neji!"

"Oh right. Okay then." They were already moving. Sasuke's heart was beating out of his chest.

Not only had he just kissed _Naruto,_ but he had been shoved into a car withen the same ten seconds and was on

his way to a party he barely knew about.

After a few minutes of silence, very akward silence, Naruto was the first to speak.

"Why was there chocolate on your lips?" Naruto licked the last traces of chocolate from _his_ lips. "I don't remember you eating chocolate while I was here."

"I...um..." Sasuke debated over weather to tell the truth. "I had...a piece of Chocolate?"

"Liar." How could Naruto tell?

"Fine, you ass. I bought a chocolate cake. I was going to save it, but I ate it on the car-ride home."

"That sounded really stupid. The whole thing?" Sasuke nodded slowly.

"Hey, it's the truth."   
"I know." There was a huff from the seat next to him. Naruto reached over to grab his hand, but Sasuke only let his touch last a few seconds before he pulled away.

"I can't believe somone so small and skinny could eat so much."

"Believe it."

More akward silence.

TenTen was sipping absently from a glass of water, watching Chouji drool and Gaara talk quietly with Temari every few minutes. If even Gaara was chatting, how bord could everyone eles possbily be?

She smoothed her red oriental dress and took another sip of water as two men who seemed like totaly idiots

stumbled through the door, as Neji got up and balled his hands into a fist.

Sasuke winced as Neji approched, but the Hyuuga merly shoved them to their seats.

Sakura twitched. Finally!

It was 6:50.

After about an hour, everyone was talking quietly amost themselves, Sasuke everyonce in a while chatting,

Naruto tried to grasp Sasuke's hand once again, and he did, for a while, until Sasuke noticed eyes opon him and he glared at Naruto.

"S-so, Sasuke, Naruto, why were you guys so...late?" Sakura questioned, slightly afraid of the answer.

Naruto instantly started fiddling with his fingers and Sasuke, who was still wearing Naruto's jaket, he relized, quickly rid himself of it and blushed.

"N-nothing! Jeeze you guys."

"Yea. Naruto's right. We couldn't find the keys."

They all nodded, for everyone had been listening on the conversation, deciding it would probably be best not to press the issue further, and instead imagined themselves what they were _really_ doing.

"Hinata-kun, you look fantastic." The Hyuuga flashed a smile twards the blonde Uzmimaki and nodded while blushing.

"You do too, Naruto-kun!" Naruto smiled. "I know." Sasuke rolled his eyes, and nibbled on a buttered roll.

"So how's school?" All he got was a nervous 'great'.

Thankfully, Sasuke's food was ready as soon as Naruto stopped his short conversation with Hinata.

"Sasuke!" Sasuke was shoveling huge amounts of food into his mouth, and it was quite hard to tell if at this point he was even chewing.

"Um..." He wiped his mouth. "Sorry." Rolled his eyes. How boring could this get?

He picked up a roll of bread, ripped off a fluffy peice and tossed it at Shino, and it hit him in the forehead. He resited the urge to throw and intire roll at Kiba.

Sakura looked over at Hinata, who seemed to be enjoyed herself alot. She was being the most social, witch was suprising. She had changed alot.

Sasuke put his elbows on the table cloths and rested his head.

"So Naruto." Naruto looked around and noticed the soft voice bellonged to Gaara.

"I heard somthing happened to your long-time friend, Iruka, was that his name?" Gaara smirked as he saw Naruto tence.  
"And what buisness of that would be yours?" Gaara shrugged and took a mouthful of somthing and without even turning to Naruto said even quietly, as if mumbling to himself:

"Because I just thought I knew somthing about it."

"What?" Naruto started to stand up but Sasuke grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him back.

"Don't draw attention to yourself. We don't want Sakura to know about this. Iruka was her friend too."

"You meen Iruka _is _her friend. And-"

"Shut up Naruto and try to act normal. If thats possible." Naruto threw a couple of looks at Gaara the entire night, witch lasted about an hour more, but at least, Sasuke noted, it was better than him jumping on the table and beating the shit out of Gaara (if he could) until he told him somthing. If he even had somthing to tell.

Temari and Kankurro were laughing as they watched their brother taunt Naruto.

Sasuke finished eating and gave Naruto a sympathetic look.

The rest of the night would prove very...erm...interesting.

It had been another hour and Sasuke and Naruto had said quick 'thank you's' and 'good-byes' to Neji and Hinata. After the party of 9 had left, leaving only three men sitting in the shadows of the restraunts ally.

Sasuke shivered as he saw a twinkle in Gaara's shimmering green eyes.

Naruto looked on at the short figure, instantly grasping his coller and shaking him agaisnt the wall.

"Where is Iruka, you bastard!" Gaara chuckled and kept his cool. He blinked and spoke softly.

"I only know that he's somwhere around the east side of Konoha. The darker side. Was driving around and saw a couple of men with guns talking about Uchiha."

Sasuke grimmanced. Naruto wasn't suppose to know!

"W-what?" Naruto stuttered. "Sasuke? How dose that have to do with Iruka?" Gaara pulled away. Naruto's arms slumped to his side.

"Didn't you know? Of corse it has to do with Sasuke. Your friend's just an innocent man who got hurt."

"What are you talking about..."

"Look. I don't like you. I'm sure you hate me. I'm going out of my way here. Just listen. Thats where Iruka's most likely is. Now leave me alone. There's suppose to be a snow storm. And I prefer sand over snow, personally."  
Gaara headed back to where Temari had a car running.  
Naruto turned to Sasuke. "Do you know anything about this?" Sasuke shook his head violently.

Naruto shrugged and turned his head to the sky to see a blanket of snow coming down on the two. Naruto, who was just wearing a cotton tee underneath it, draped his jaket over Sasuke.

Naruto pulled Sasuke into a tight hug, and grasped Sasuke's hand in his own.

This time Sasuke didn't pull away.

_I like snow. It's alot cleaner than rain._

_Snow makes me feel invisible. _

_It makes me not need to hide._

_And somtimes the pain I feel will be numbed._

_And I will no longer hurt. And maby you won't hurt either._

_It makes me almost happy. _

_Almost. Only you can truly make me happy._


	7. watch the same sunset from a window

"I'm going after them right now!" Naruto growled and pulled away form Sasuke, feriocity like the raven haired boy had never seen gleaming in his eyes.

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled as the blonde dug the keys out of his pant pockets and rushed twards the car.

"Stop it! Your can't be stupider!" Sasuke grabbed onto his arm tightly. "Leggo', asshole!"

Sasuke let him go and stared at Naruto for a while before shaking his head storming out into the car.

But Naruto didn't care.

"I'm leaving, you jerk!" Sasuke shouted through the open window. He revved the engine, but waited.

Naruto smirked slightly. _He's not even pretending to leave _

Sasuke watched Naruto slowly, not sure when he would decide to go after Iruka, but he suddenly found himself

fatigued.

Sasuke rested his chin on the open window glass and watched Naruto until the snow got heavy and his vision was blurred and he fell soundly asleep.

Naruto saw Sasuke finally fall asleep and he had smiled, knowing he was basically tied to the boy.

It would be quite cruel to leave him without keys in a car in the middle of winter, wouldn't it?

He sighed, wanting only despratly to go and find the bastards who had taken Iruka from him.

He wiped the snow off of his bare, slightly numb arms, and dragged his feet through the snow to the driver's seat and turned on the heat immidiatly. He found himself slightly concerned; the blonde placed a hand over Sasuke's forehead. He was cold.

Sasuke was still asleep, and Naruto grasped his hand, but this time he was the one to pull away at the first warm touch.

Was he in love with Sasuke?

No, it was impossible. He remembered the very heated moment in the freezing rain as he turned the corner on Unoichi Street and shuddered. Sasuke was just his friend...right?

Sasuke felt the same way...right?  
Yes, Uzuimaki Naruto was usually right, but this was somthing he couldn't be wrong about. Never.

Naruto felt a strange, unconfortable sensation as he lifted the raven-haired boy out of the car, bridal-style, up the steep stairs into his small flat.

He put the very light boy onto the couch gentily and took three blankets from his bedroom and wrapped the around Sasuke.

He found himself cupping his hands around Sasuke's cold face and kissing his forehead. Naruto wiped the silky black strands from his eyes and stared at Sasuke for a moment before leaving the apartment:

"Sasuke...you bastard." Naruto smiled. "I think I'm in love with you."

Not to far from where the two boys had been in Naruto's apartment, seven men sat around an eighth man, wepons in hands.

"You will tell me..." A tall, burly man growled. "Where the Uchiha is!"  
The man in the middle whimpered softly, blood staining his usually cheerful expression. Hot, Fresh Tears streamed down his face and entwined with's the fresh red liquid on his cheeks, creating a surplus of bloddy tears.

"So, you chose not to speak?" Iruka Umino stood up slowly, quivvering where he stood, but a deffiant look gleamed in his eyes.

"I Think this one will not be enough to lure the Uchiha here, sir." Sweat formed on Iruka's face.  
_What can they possibly meen?_

"Agreed. I believe there is another, one much more important to the Uchiha than this one." He used the sharp toe of his shoe to kick the man in his side. He coughed up blood on the floor.

"Yes. Can you tell us the name of this man?"

The leader, a shadowy, tall man with a face hid by darkness, nodded.

"Kakashi Hatake."

Iruka's heart skipped a beat. Two. Three. Four. _Kakashi! I have to warn you!_

"No!" Iruka hissed. "Don't hurt him!"

One of the men grasped Iruka by the chin and thrust his head to face his own.  
"Why? Are you in love with this man named Kakashi?"

Iruka stiffened.

"I...I..."  
"Don't worry, you'll see him again." Iruka blinked and stared up at the man loading a gun. "In Hell."

He pulled the trigger and fired, just as a blonde boy wearing an orange sweatshirt burst into the room.

Sasuke didn't know Naruto would leave. He kept focusing on the fact that, though the window was open (thanks to a not-so-bright blonde baka who wanted fresh air but then never bothered closing the window) and cold air had to be gushing through the heated apartment, he felt warm.

He felt loved. Sasuke never bothered to close the window either. He figured it could wait until morning.

Sasuke awoke startled, another dream, sweat beading on his forehead and seeping through the roots of his thick black hair. Snakes.

They had been everywhere, sinking cold, icey fangs into the flesh of his friends. There blood was allover Sasuke's hands.

Sasuke got up, quickly changed cloths, and shut the window, shivering.

"Naruto, do we have anything for breakfast?"  
No answer.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and opened the door into Naruto's bedroom. He wispered:

"Dobe, C'mon. It's 9:30 already. Get up!"

No answer.

Sasuke sighed and threw the covers aside, hoping to see a blonde boy soundly asleep, but instead found nothing. "Naruto, you're not funny." But Sasuke was really starting to worry.

He went into the living room, and noticed the the coat rack was empty of his jaket and the key ring was gone.

_No...He went after Iruka!_

In a pair of blue slippers and matching blue flannel pajamas he had bought yesterday with clouds and moons and stars printed on the pants, (He had yet to show these to Naruto) and opened the door. Damn, he wished he had bought a jaket.

But what he would see would be unlike anything he had seen before.

Naruto lay on the ground, his head bleeding, the warehouse empty.

The bullet had simply grazed him, probably ment to scare Iruka, not kill him, but now he was gone. Naruto had blew it. He remember regetfully when the bullets-he swore there were 5 or 6, had flew past him.

Words swam in his head. _Kakashi...Iruka...in Hell...Sasuke...Sasuke...Sasuke..._

"But why Sasuke? He wouldn't lie to me!" Or would he...

Naruto hoped into his car and winced as the blood gushed from his shoulder and cheek. Fresh wounds, threee slashs on either cheek and another graze on his leg, bled profoundly.

He drove home, in pain, but despite that worrying about Sasuke the entire time.

Sasuke had waited for an hour outside in the freezing cold and snow. When he finally watched Naruto get out of the car and watched in horror as the boy bled out onto the pavment.

"Naruto!" Sasuke grimmanced and ran so he could support him.

"I'm fine Sasuke! But look at you! Your shivering." It was true and uncontrollable, but Sasuke didn't care. Tears swelled in his eyes.

"I don't care, Naruto!" He choked. "Your hurt!" _And it's all my fault!_

"I failed, Sasuke. I couldn't get him back. I'm a failure. I couldn't save him."

"Oh Naruto you're not a failure! Your the bravest person I know!" The much shorter boy threw his arms around Naruto's neck._While I'm just a coward!_

"They got away. He's still alive though, I took the bullet."

"Naruto, you ass!" Naruto blinked and looked at him, getting his old spirit back for a moment.

"What! How is this my fault!" _Nothing's your fault. You're perfect compared to me!_

"Because!" The tears were flowing freely now. The spilled out onto his shirt and Naruto's and all over his reddened face. _The tears of self hatred._

"Because why, koishii?" He stroked Sasuke's hair slowly. "Why do you care?"

"Because!" He sobbed. "I need you!" _Without you I am nothing_

Naruto held Sasuke in a protective embrase. Naruto somtimes wished he could stay like this forever-with the one he loved-but time moved so fast. _ I need you to stop all the sadness._

"Sasuke..." Naruto said after a while. _All the hate.._

Sasuke looked up at him, and the tears ceased to flow. "I like your pajamas."

_Because I love you._


	8. What he doesn't know won't hurt him so

Sakura Haruno had been instructed to come over to Naruto's and Sasuke and invite them to a movie, but she saw alot more than she had bargained for.

Sasuke, no!

Even if she was dating Lee, it was all a distraction for her unrequited love fore Sasuke.

And she had always thrived on Naruto's unrequitted love for _her._

But now it was all gone. The things that comforted her. The things she fantasized about.

All gone.

Tear's flooded to her eyes. She dropped the two movie tickets and ran back to her car.

A mental image of Naruto kissing Sasuke was too much.

And the worst part is, she thought as she turned on the windshield wipers and blasted the heat, that a kiss between her and Sasuke would never be as real.

Neji had found himself thinking about Sasuke all the time.

It wasn't just the fact that he constantly insulted him (all though that was a large portion of it)

but more that he found himself _hating_ Naruto.Why should that dobe be the only one to get Sasuke time and attention? Why?  
It wasn't fair. So he hated that damn Uchiha for making him jelouse.

"Damn, those guys never showed up! That was a great movie..."

The nodded in agreement as the exited the theater, yawning and stretching.

"Too bad they couldn't...make it." Sakura wondered about what they were doing now.

Sasuke couldn't be gay...it wasn't possible. It was Naruto's fault. All his fault.

And she was going to prove it once and for all.

It was around six, Sasuke was cooking dinnner and Naruto had taken a walk across the street to clear his head.

Sasuke made fresh ramen, his family recipie, and he knew Naruto would like it. Thats why he kept smiling the entire time.

Sakura had come in about eight minutes earlier-saying somthing about meeting her and Naruto in the park.

Well, the noodles cooked for twenty minutes, so he turned off the burner and let them steep as he slipped on a black leather jaket Naruto had bought him and grabbed the house keys as he hummed a song down the elevator to the park across the street.

Naruto was crying and Sakura could tell from far away. His knees were brought up to his chest on the bench.

She could hear the small sobs and she wondered why as she approched him.

"S-sakura?" Sakura sat down with him and put a hand around his shoulder.

"I know it's none of my buisness, but why are you crying?"

"You can't know." She put a hand on his, checking her watch. It was about time.

"Sasuke, you know, how is he?" Naruto smilied broad at his name and nodded enthusiaticly. It bothered Sakura. Sasuke owuld be hers soon.

She leaned in to Naruto who thought it was a hug and gladly did so. But Sakura stayed like that, making Naruto slightly uncomfortable.

She looked over across the street to see if he was coming. Right on cue.

"Naruto can I prove to you somthing?"

"...sure..."

Just as Sasuke was in view, Sakura pushed Naruto to the wet, earthy ground and kissed him fiercly.

"Naruto!" Sasuke sobbed. How could he? Sasuke stood in state of shock, tears brimming his beautiful eyes.

_I was suppose to protect Sasuke from things like this..._

_I fail everyone._

"Sasuke wait!" Naruto called, but the raven haired boy was out of earshot. his sobs, however, were not.

"Sakura!" Naruto pushed her off, glaring. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

She gigled and tried to kiss him again. Inner Sakura yelled in triumph.

He pulled away.

"I was just proving to you...that you wern't gay."

"What?" He blushed. _She must have...seen me and Sasuke..._

"I don't have time for you."

"What Naruto!" She called, but he was gone, leaving her all alone. But she was smiling to herself.

Neji had been debating weather this was true or not- he knew Naruto was in love with Sasuke, and that Sasuke must like Naruto back, btu he knew he had undenyable feelings for the Uchiha and it was starting too get on his nerves.

He had just eaten and watch TV to destract himself, but it wasn't working.

He wanted Sasuke. And he wanted Sasuke to want him back.

Sasuke ran and ran until the snow got deeper and his knees were burning from cold. It had been 15 minutes and he was numb to his soul already.

Tears made his vision blurry as he ran; he didn't know where he was running, or to who for that matter, but all that matter was getting away from Naruto and that pink haired bitch who stole him from him.

The snow was starting again now and it was growing dark.

He looked up at the house infront of him. It was Neji Hyuuga's.

Neji peered out the window looking at the snow. He loved the snow. And he was going to like it even more.

Sasuke rang the door bell, still sobbing.

Neji opened the door to find Sasuke huddled in his jaket, hot tears runnign down his face.

"Oh Neji! I don't have anyone!" He flug himself into Neji's open arms. Neji stroked his hair like a little child.

"Don't do th-hat..." He sobbed into Neji's jaket. They were still in the door way.

"Why, Sasuke-kun?"

"Because..N-naruto used to do that!" Neji flushed and hugged the Uchiha tighter. Naruto was going ot pay for what ever he did to Sasuke.

"I'm so alone now, Neji!" Sasuke told him, looking up into his ivory eyes. Neji cupped his hands around the Uchiha's cold face. He looked so miserable. More tears flooded over Neji's warm hands.  
"Naruto loved Sakura and I have nobody! No home, no close friends, no one to love me!" Neji traced Sasuke's jawline with his index finger.

"You have me..." And with that, Neji brought the Uchiha so close he thought he could feel his heartbeat.

But he couldn't. It didn't matter though. Sasuke's heart and nearly stopped when Neji had kissed him.

Naruto trugged throught the snow in his sweatpants and jaket. How could she do this? That pink witch.

Now Sasuke was alone and cold somwhere where no-one eles could help him.

_"Naruto-kun?"_

_"Yes, Sasuke?" Naruto rested his chin on Sasuke's head. Sasuke smiled as and _

_Naruto wrapped his arms around him. _

_"How do I know...I'm never going to be alone again?" Naruto thought for a moment _

_and then smiled down at the raven haired-boy._

_"Whats so funny, Uzuimaki?" Sasuke pouted._

_"You look so cute when you make that face." Sasuke blushed, but waited patienly _

_for his answer. "Because..." He said. "I love you."_

It had been half anf hour and his worry was growing rapidly.

How could this happen!

He looked over and saw Neji's house. Thats it. He'll ask Neji for help. After all, Neji seemed to talk about Sasuke alot, almost as much as Naruto did.

He brushed off his feet on the door mat and opened the door.

There was the Uchiha.

Shirt off stripped away.

Shorts hanging loosley on flawless Uchiha hips.

Heat.

Pressed against the wall.

Heat.

Hands in Neji's

Heat.

Kiss on his lips.

Heat.

Love in his heart.

"Wait Naruto!" Sasuke cried as Naruto rolled up his sleeve. He was going to take out this Hyuuga bastard once and for all.

But then he saw Sasuke's pleading face and Naruto's tears spilled on the floor.

Sasuke felt Naruto's heartbreak for the first time.


	9. Looks down with an angry pity

**I'm so happy I got new reviews! Yay! (But I still can't format )**

**Chapter 9!**

Neji shrugged as Naruto left and continued toying with the belt to Sasuke's shorts.

Sasuke pushed him away and looked at Neji with digust. But it was directed more to himself.

"What's wrong?" Neji purred in Sasuke's ear. Sasuke was falling for it again. He stood up, tied back the leather belt to his beige shorts, and slipped on his sweatshirt, his ribs no longer visible under a layer of hard muscel. Sasuke was truley beautiful. Mabby thats why they loved him. Not for himself.

"You took advantage of me!" Sasuke was close to tears, but he had been crying alot lately and he hated showing a weak side. His fair voiced was charred with hate. Even though, truthfully, it wasn't really Neji's fault.

"No..." Neji played with his words. "It was _Naruto _who took advantage of _you._"

Sasuke considered it. It was true. But why had he seemed so truley heartbroken when he saw Neji with him? _Because I love you._

He could hear the rythm of Naruto's voice ringing in his ears and matching the pace of his rapid breath.

_I..._

Neji slipped off his own shirt and advanced twards the Uchiha. "Don't go..."

_Love you..._

Had anyone ever loved him before?

"Sorry Neji...I guess I used you too..." Neji, being taller, grasped the Uchiha and kissed him one last time.

"Now tell me..before your sure you want to go...didn't you feel somthing?"

He used his tounge to lick around the base of the Uchiha's neck. Sasuke gulped, denying the sensation it gave him.

"Neji..." He pushed Neji away and slipped on his blue, high-collerd sweater."Do you love me?"

Neji paused and swallowed. _Did _he love Sasuke?

"Dose it matter?" Sasuke sighed..

"Sorry...Neji...I really am...But I can't do this to Naruto." Neji gripped him by his collar and bent down to kiss him again. Sasuke turned to the side and shook his head.

"Please don't..." Neji nodded and slipped on his shirt as well.

"You sure? I don't want him to hurt you Sasuke..." Sasuke flug his arms around Neji, who blushed.

"I'm sure," He burried his head in the crook of his neck, enjoying the smell of the Hyuuga. "Thank you for helping me." Neji nodded slowly, but then asked before Sasuke left;

"Help with what?" _All I did was come this close to shagging you. _

Sasuke smiled. "Nothing." _You helped me from making the worst deccision of my life._

Neji smiled and faked a smile. Sasuke did the same. The raven-haired boy shut the door quietly, both of them wondering at the same precise moment if Sasuke had made the right decision to leave.

What was he coming home to now?

Naruto might has well died then and there. And to think Sasuke wanted him. Ever.

Sasuke wanted anyone, and the worst part was he _could_ get anyone. Naruto had been wrong alot more than he had ever thought he would be. It was, and always would be his biggest mistake.

Did he reallly have anyhting left to live for? Iruka may be dead, along with Kakashi, if they caught him already.

His friends would never understand.

_I have nothing...left for me...here..._

Naruto turned to open his apartment door, he looked through the foggy glass to see a raven haired figure in the reflection, standing behind him in a shimmering afternoon light.

"So, you slut. You're back."

"I could say the same thing."

About ten minutes earlier, Kakashi Hitake rubbed his bloodhsot eyes in his small, modest apartment, reading and 'Icha Icha paradise' book and eating anything he had left in the fridge.

He wandered into the kitchen to grab the book he had left before he went out to get necessities for his apartment at the store a couple of streets down.

The call he had received from Sasuke about Iruka a couple of days ago troubled him still.

The second call troubled him more, but he payed no mind. After all, who could kill him?

Nobody.

He adjusted his mask, grabbed his car keys and was about to leave when Kakashi felt an enormous pain in the back of his head. He whirled around, his vision shifting.

Then, all of a sudden, everything went black.

Sakura was still sitting on the bench.

She decided she'd let the intial work of finding a heartbroken Sasuke to Naruto and then having him love _her._

She'd dump Lee, but then again Lee had been eyeing TenTen, who was single.

It would all end perfectly and she would be happy.

But Sakura had always been the type of person who put her happiness over everyone ele's.

"Neji...!" Rock Lee knocked on the door. "You left your jacket at my house and I just wanted to bring it back!"

Neji sighed and balled up the leather jacket Sasuke had left in his hands. It still smelled like him. Neji opened the door for Lee.

"Hey Neji!" Lee smiled. Neji scoffed. This was just the perfect time to be cheerful. He, though, held the door wider for Lee to come in. Lee nodded thankfully and put his own jaket on the coathanger. Neji shut the door and both men came to sit down on the couch in the next room.

"It's really cold out there." Lee commented, and Neji nodded, but he could tell he had somthing eles on his mind.

"I know you came here to talk about somthing. What is it?" Lee hesitated.

"Umm...Well...you know how you told me..." Neji knew what was coming. "How you kinda...like...Sasuke?"

Neji blushed, closed his eyes and nodded slowy. "W-what. Why do you want to talk about it?"

"Did anything happen?"  
"Why would you..." Neji opened his eyes. "...ask?"  
"Well because I saw him coming from your house as I left. I asked him if he had been here-he said yes but that was all." He paused. "Was he lying?"

Neji's eyes darted around the room and rested on Lee, who waited pationtly for the answer.

"No. Nothing happened." He hid the leather jacket behind his back.

"That's Sasuke's jacket isn't it." Lee elbowed Neji.

"N-no...It's...mine..?"

"Are your intials..." Lee Squinted. "S.U?" Neji pouted. "Fine. It's his. "

"Sooo you and Sasukeee...?" He teased. Neji glared at his best friend. "He was over here. Stuff happened BUT-" He held out a hand to Lee who was making a face. "Not the kinda of stuff you would think. Nothing huge."

"Didja kiss him?" Neji blushed, and it told him everything. He asked no more questions. They watched T.V for a while, about a half hour, until Lee switched it off and asked him one last thing:

"Are you in love with Sasuke? And dose Sasuke love you?"

"I already told you Lee, I like him. And he liked me."

"But are you two _in love._"

Neji sighed.

It told him everything.


	10. Carves his name in the flesh of the city

**This is mostly a filler chapter**

**Sorry, lol! **

"Why did you even bother coming back." It was a statment, not a question, in the clearest possible form.

"Why do you care? I'ts not like you love me." Naruto took it like a stab in the heart. He did love him!

But those wern't the words that left his lips.

"You were with Neji. And I was 'with' Sakura. But it's not like _you _love _me."_

Sasuke flinched.

"You told me!" Sasuke growled. Naruto saw tears glistening in his eyes and his whole body shaking. Naruto sighed. That baka. He was still wearing those shorts, in about a foot of snow, no less. And he was missing his jacket.

"You were with that pink-haired _slut_!"

"Me? She kissed me first!" At this Sasuke shook his head in disbeilf. "And you were with _Neji_! What happened to hating him? You were so close to...to..." He shuddered.

"You told me you loved me!" Sasuke hissed. "You did and I believed you!" _I did love you!_

"You loved me too!" _I know I did!_

"Says who! I never said it!" _I wish I had!_

"So you don't?" Sasuke was close to more tears, but didn't say a thing. He turned to walk away.

"Your going back to Neji?" He yelled. "Your going to finish was you were there for?"

Snow started to fall again. Naruto's figure became blurry. He could, however, make out his tears and hear the voice that spoke the words:

"I hate you."

_You didn't have to say it._

_You could have told me this morning that you'd kill me yourself and I wouldn't have believed you._

_But when you looked at me with your eyes filled with hate_

_I looked back and_

_I could tell you ment it._

"Sakura...how could you?" She had still been sitting on the bench and was about to go after Sasuke, who she had seen across the street, when she whirled around. It was Ino.

"D-do what?" She stuttered. "I didn't do anything!" _Lying is the only way out._

"You cheated on Lee! And you don't even _like _Naruto!"

"Oh..Um..."Sakura fiddled with the strands of pink hair that fell over her slim shoulders.

"You shouldn't have any excuses for what you did." _If only she knew the full truth...of what I did..._

"You don't understand! Naruto kissed Sasuke!"

"Like back when we were _12_! So?" She put her hands on her hips.

"No! Not like when we were 12! He kissed him back!" Ino shook her head again.

"Look. I know you think, since Naruto liked you, that you could 'make him love you' again. I know you Sakura." She sighed.

"But Sasuke's not yours. He never will be yours. You can't help who he loves and who loves and dosn't love you. I know-I liked Sasuke- but I have Shikimaru. And you have a great guy too."

She put a hand on her shoulder.

"And you should fix what needs to be fixed." Sakura nodded. "I'll fix it..."

"Good." The two best friends hugged and Sakura ran after Sasuke as Ino watched her in the falling snow until she turned back to her and Shikimaru's apartment.

Kakashi felt somwhat like he would if he was hungover as he was thrown onto the floor in a room that looked remotly like a jail cell, except that there was somone huddled in the corner.

Kakashi Hitake adjusted his mask and put a hand on the man's shoulder.

"There going to kill him...and me..."

"Who? Who are they going to kill?" Kakashi was remotly interested.

"You." It was Iruka.

Kakashi barley had time to scream.

"This is when I would need you most...Sasu-kun..." Naruto sighed as he unlocked the apartment door, stepping inside and turning on the heater. Damn, it was cold. But some how it was colder now that Sasuke was gone.

He opened a beer, hopfully alcohal would numb the pain, and sat on the couch, head on hands.

"How am I going to find him now?"

Naruto sat up and went into his room.

"Where is my will? My strenth?"

He picked up the clothing, the empty cans and paper scraps to try to keep it clean, and then left for the kitchen.

"Where am I without you?"

He found the room smelling irrisistable.

There on the stove was a pot of ramen, now cold. But it was the fresh kind, the kind that would take alot of time and care to make.

_"Why would you make ramen for me? You hate it."_

He took a spoon and then a smal taste.

_"Yea, but you love it." And I love you...so why not?_

Sasuke never had to say it. It wouldn't matter, it would never matter.

Naruto felt it with his heart. The ramen tasted deliciouse.

He fell to his knees then and found himself sobbing uncontrollably.

Shikimaru sighed and watched as Ino stepping into the room.

"Whats wrong?"

"I never said anything was wrong, Shika."

"You don't need too."

She sat down but he caught her in a embrase.

"You wouldn't ever leave me, would you?"

"Why would you say that, Ino? You know I love you." She gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"I'm glad. I love you too." Her mind reflected on the feuding couples in her life.

"But why do you need to know?

"Just making sure."

"I know your here, Neji." Naruto sighed and stood up. "But I'm not going to stop crying just because your here."

His tears spilled into the noddle dish.

"Did you make that? It smells great." He commented. Naruto shook his head. He looked up and Neji, finding his rage undenyable, and punched him as hard as he could. He looked down at the Hyuuga on the floor; there was blood staining his pale skin and blood on his own knuckles.

"Felt good, didn't it?" Neji stood up and wiped the blood off his mouth. Naruto shook his head.

"It only made it worse."

They were silent for a while until Naruto glared at Neji, asking the obvious.

"Why the fuck are you here anyway? Is Sasuke with you?" Neji scoffed.

"No. I havn't seen him since he left my house, witch was right after you bardged in."

"Why would he leave you too?"

"He said he loved you and that he couldn't do somthing like that to the one he loves most." Neji lied, but it was how Sasuke felt, that was for sure, and if he couldn't have Sasuke, why make Naruto's life miserable?

"I can tell he didn't say that. You don't have to lie." Neji seemed shocked, but then smiled.

"Did you need him to say it?"

Sasuke was hungry, tired, cold, and heartbroke.

"Damn! Why did I have to say it!"

He licked the tear running down his cheek.  
"I miss you so much! I hate you!" He yelled into the darkening sky.

"You hate who?" Said a voice from the shadows. Sasuke turned to face a short, red-haired boy, who was crossing his arms waiting for an answer.

"I'm not in the mood to deal with you, Gaara. But since you'd probably find out anyway, it's Naruto."

Gaara nodded and started to walk off, but stopped.

"Do you need a place to stay?" Sasuke was slightly taken aback.

"Yes, but not from you." Gaara smirked. How did he know that would be his answer? He started to walk off again.

"Wait! Gaara...where are you going?"

"Taking...a walk...to a friend's." Sasuke nodded. Gaara spoke once more before leaving: "Take care of yourself, you stupid Uchiha."

Sakura's heart was pounding as she ran through the city, witch was growing more dark and more shadowy by the second. _You have to fix whats wrong and make it right. _Ino's voice rang in her ears.

"I have to find Sasuke..."

She had no idea where he would be; he was unpredictable to say the least, and he barley Konoha.

At least he hadn't been here in seven years. Why did it snow so much in Konoha?

Sakura cought a flake on her touge and tasted the biting crystal.

Sasuke could freeze and she needed to fine him soon.

Gaara walked slowly through the dying light of Konoha until he got to Naruto's apartment.

He peered at a huddled figure emerging from the door. _Naruto?_

Gaara approached, but then noticed it was Neji Hyuuga, his long, silky, brunette hair flowly in the bitting cold.

"Neji?" Neji turned to look at Gaara and nodded for him to go on. "What?"

"Is Naruto Uzimaki home?" Neji made the gesture for a 'yes'.

Gaara reached for the door handle, but found Neji's own hand stopping him.

"Don't."

"Why not?" From Neji's feirce glare, Gaara asked no more about Naruto.  
"Where are you going, Hyuuga?" Gaara asked, buttoning his jacket. Neji sighed and decided to tell him and get it over with.

"To find that damn Uchiha." Gaara saw a glit of sadness in Neji's very readable ivory eyes. But he focused more on what Neji had said. The Uchiha.

"I saw him a couple of blocks down. Looks fucking cold." Neji nodded and flipped open his cell. Gaara could guess that it was Naruto he had been calling as he fed the infomation to the person on the other line.

When he hung up Gaara asked blushing, "Well, I have nothing to do for the rest of the night. Do you want to come over?" Neji flashed a quick smile.

"I'll be there at 7:00."

**Wow, 10 chapters already...**

**I hope I get more reveiws!**

**BankotsuChick**


	11. Thinks hes been freed from it all

**Wow thanks for putting up with me through writters block (and formatting issues) **

**Yes. This is most deffinatly a filler. But a good filler.**

Sakura had been wandering for about two hours and finally dicided to rest on a bench. It had to be at least 15 degreese and she was barley in the mood to serch for a freezing Uchiha late at night.

"Exuse me sir..." Sakura asked a man next to her who was also sitting there. He looked young, even though she couldn't see his face, and he was wearing..._shorts!_

"Do you have the time?" The man peered at his watch. "8:30."

"Sasuke!" She breathed. Sasuke turned his head, his face red and tear-stained, and now shivering.

"Sakura...!...What do you want, you bitch..."  
"Oh Sasuke! I'm sorry!" He tried to shake her off when she grasped him in a hug.

"Forget it. I know you-and _Naruto_-arn't."

"Sasuke I was completely wrong! I didn't meen to hurt you like that!"

He started to stand up but she pulled him back.

"You can't just run away from the things you don't want to here! Like a coward!" Sasuke's eyes widened.

He waited a moment before he sat back down.

"Listen to me! You don't know the hell I went through trying to find you!" Sasuke looked away.

"I don't need your lectures. Skip them." Sakura scoffed "Your going to listen to me!"  
Sasuke crossed his arms as Sakura draped her poncho over his slim shoulders. he left it there, probably appriciating the warmth, but hating the fact he couldn't provide it for himself. Sakura knew him all too well.

"It's obviouse he loved you! Even to me, who wants you for myself!" Sasuke looked at her. He was finally listening.

"He's hurt and he missed you! He just can't say it! You know Naruto!" Sasuke chuckled. "What a dobe."

She put a hand on his shoulder.

"I made a mistake because I was jelous of your love for him, the love I could never have!"

He smiled. "Dose he forgive me for almost doing it with Neji?"  
"W-whaaat?" Sasuke twitched. _She didn't know! He never told her! Shit!_

"Um..it was a joke...?" She decided it was best to go with that. "S-sure..."

Sasuke looked up at the night sky and thought immidiatly of Naruto. It was cold and all he wanted to do was lean in Naruto's warm arms.

"So he wants me back?" Sakura smiled weakly. She nodded. "Guess I don't want to dissapoint him..."

"No you don't...go to him, Sasuke. He needs you." He stood up and gave Sakura a quick hug.

"Thank you Sakura. Now lets go."

Naruto sobbed quietly to himself in the darkness.

How _was _he goint to find Iruka when he had no will to do so? Would he fail yet another person in his life?

No, he couldn't allow himself to.

But how could he, he asked himself in sorrow, not?

He was enjoying the silence when he felt a feeling he wasn't used to. He wasn't allone.

"Get the hell out." Naruto hissed. After a while, he herd a inane laughter circling him.

"_Give us the Uchiha or the men die..."_

"The men?" All he heard was the sound until he a piece of creamy-white paper flutter infront of him, slightly glowing the the pure darkness.

Naruto's heart lept. _They must meen Kakashi...but Iruka's still alive!_

He sighed. There was no way out out of this. He had to give in. Iruka had been with him all his life.

Tears welled up in his eyes.

"G-give me a week." He could just make out the shadowy figure standing the the doorway.

"But why do you want Sasuke?" Naruto shouted. But there was no-one there. (1)

Sasuke couldn't understand the feeling he got when he knocked on the door of Naruto's apartment.

He knocked lightly, looking back at Sakura who smiled and made the gesture for him to knock again.

Naruto didn't bother to see who it was. He just opened the door and braced himself to see somone who wanted to take his life. He might as well let them.

Sasuke didn't know what to say when he say Naruto's face; he looked back at Sakura again, but she was gone.

Naruto looked down at Sasuke, the two locking eyes in a fierce gaze.

Sasuke leaned up and kissed him lightly, a slight touch against his lips. His onyx-colored eyes brimmed with tears. "I was wrong, Naruto. I was really wrong, and I made a big mistake."

_I wish I had the strenth to say that before._

"I made a mistake too, Sasuke. We both did, but so dose everyone."

_I wasted the time I could have spent with you._

Naruto bent down and kissed Sasuke again, leaning his body against the raven haired boy, the heat like a drug, unbearably hot, but so, so addictive.

Sasuke ran his fingers through Naruto's hair. "I missed you...more than you'll ever know."

_Missing you is somthing I'll never want to feel again._

"Sasuke, your cold..." Naruto cupped his hand on his cheek. Sasuke leaned his head forward, twards the warmth of his hand, then pouted.

"Am not...!"  
"But..._even though you look really cute making that face,_" Naruto said as Sasuke put both arms around his neck when the blonde lifted him with ease. "I don't want you getting sick..."

"Why, Naruto? Why do you have to worry about me?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

Sasuke had changed into his flanel shorts with a matching top and went into the seprate guest room.

Naruto grasped his hand just as the raven-haired boy was closing the door.

"Don't go...come with me." Sasuke nodded and fallowed Naruto who was still holding his hand.

Sasuke's eyelids were dropping and finally he gave into the tierdness nagging at his body.

At least he could go to sleep peacfully. Naruto's arm was drapped around him. He would never want Sasuke to leave him again. Sasuke shifted, slightly startling the blonde.

"Naruto..." he mumbled, his voice bearly audible. "I-I love you..." Narut's heart lept. Did he really?

"I know, Sasuke, I know," Naruto said.

"How do you know?" Sasuke whispered. Naruto smiled, slowly and then answered, placing a kiss on his lips once more:

"I've always known, Sasuke. I've always known."

Sasuke said nothing and fell asleep. Naruto's mind, however, was somwhere eles.

_"Give us the Uchiha or the men die..."_

_"G-give me a..week.."_

"But you shouldn't love me, Sasuke...you should hate me for all it's worth."

After that, he too, though troubled and somewhat saddened, fell into unconsiousness. (2)

_When I saw your face I wanted to run_

_So fast and so far nobody would ever catch me._

_But then I remembered somthing._

_I've run for a long time...and..._

_Only cowards run._

_So let's walk for a bit._

_I'm kinda tired of running._

As dawn stretched it's lankey physic across the dying darkness, with each passing minutes, wisps of crisp breeze tickled the exposed skin on Naruto's face.

He tried to hide under the slightly high coller of his jaket, his eyes snapped shut, his fingers curled into a fist.

His azure eyes betrayed his emotions; anyone who looked through them could see the love that burned into his heart; it might have well been a picture of Sasuke, the missing, the longing, the painful regret.

Somtimes he doubted the Uchiha was of this world; his skin so pale, his eyes so relentless, his heart's armour somwhat unbreakable. But when he had said that to him, 'I love you', he couldn't bring himself to ask why, or tell the one he loved the same.

It's not like he didn't, he loved Sasuke more than he could remember loving anyone; but the way he was or might betray the Uchiha that couldn't allow him.

The thick, foam-brimmed waves sloshed against the hard, frosted, sand and it reflected off Naruto's eyes.

"Hmph, figures, dobe. I knew you'd be here."

Naruto's eyes shut as a smile played across his solemn expression.

"I knew you knew." He whispered, voice muffled by fleece. Sasuke sighed and locked eyes with Naruto, who turned his head for a breif moment. Naruto adverted his eyes; guilt rising his chest.

Sasuke stood behind him and placed his arms loosley around his neck.

Naruto nudged him away gently with his nose, and Sasuke looked somewhat hurt.

"Naruto I know you say it, but do you meen it?" He was about to say 'meen what Sasuke' but he knew, and sighed.

"I already told you."

Sasuke sat beside him, not quite touching, save the tips of their ungloved fingers. That heat was enough to keep both warm. Naruto gave in to temtation and put his arm over Sasuke's shoulder, sighing, watching as Sasuke's eyes fallowed the water until they finally found themselves in Naruto's.

Sasuke kissed Naruto's cheek, so softly it might as well been the wind.

Naruto felt that moment that nothing could stop him from loving Sasuke, not the cold, not the fear, not the threats against him. He needed Sasuke to save Iruka. He needed him in his life.

He never would doubt the boy's humanity again.

1. Hmm, I don't know how this will fit into the story. I really must say I need a co-author.

2. Yay they made up! Finally!

**I'm so happy I'm on chappie 11!**

**Yay!**

**Hopefully I'll get more reveiwers!**

**Until next time, (hopefully that won't be too long)**

**BankotsuChick**


	12. But no ones there for when he falls

**THIS IS THE CHAPTER YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR...**

**To end it this wasy was a totally random decision...and when you read it you'll think 'Will Be Loved' is over...but I ASSURE YOU ITS FAR FROM IT!**

**(cackles evily)**

**On with the fic!**

**LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE**

Sasuke's hair was pulled into a high, tight, pony-tail, with thick whisps of raven hair hanging in his face, slighly covering his eyes, and apron adorned with the phrase 'kiss the cook' tied around his waist.

"I've never seen you with your hair back." Naruto mused, whirling Sasuke around to give him a kiss, hense the apron. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"You look kinda hot.." Naruto murmered, placing a hand on the shorter one's head. Sasuke blushed, trying to think of somthing to say back. No words were found.

"Get away you stupid baka. Away."

He made the gesture with his hands as if he was coaxing a fly to leave him alone. Naruto cocked his head and crossed his arms, while Sasuke put his hands on his hips, still clutching a soup ladle.

"And for _your_ information, don't I always look hot?" Naruto smirked. "Yes, but just a little different."

Sasuke stirred the hot miso on the stove before quickly checking on the fish that was grilling beside the soup.

Naruto looked on with a look of slight bordom as the Uchiha, who looked quite strange at the moment, jumped back and forth between three pots of fresh white rice, grilled fish, and miso soup.

While Sasuke tasted and constantly added salt and pepper, Naruto sighed.

On the table sat a large bowl of pickled vegetables, manly cucumbers, and Naruto used the clean chopsticks Sasuke had spesifically told him not to touch to lift a pickle inches from his lips.

He was close to eating the morsel, too, if Sasuke hadn't taken the soup ladel, witch was very hot, and hit him on the hand.

"Fuck!" Naruto growled, chopsticks in lap, well at least one, and pick on table. Sasuke put it back in the bowl.

"Fuck you, you meen. I told you those are not to touch until I was done!" He turned back to the stove.

"Well, I'm only starving. Breakfast shouldn't take-" He checked his watch. "-and hour and fifteen minutes to make."

"Why would you want a stupid pickle-" Sasuke turned to kiss him on the lips, alot lighter than Naruto had done.

"When you could have this." He said, and turned back to the stove before the blonde boy knew what was happening.

He opened his eyes, tounge sticking out, to find the Uchiha back at the stove. Naruto grumbled and murrmered somthing about still being hungry. Sasuke should have hit him for that commet, but the rice was beggining to overcook.

"Arigato, Sasu-kun!" Naruto said before digging into the food fifteen minutes later.. Sasuke didn't have have the time to say 'thanks'.

He picked at it slowly while Naruto was already done with mostly everything by the end of five minutes.

It took Sasuke a little while to feel eyes on his neck and turned to see blue eyes staring at him.

He pushed his bowl over the table, and when he was half-done with the bowl, he looked over at Sasuke.

He was almost as thin, but cirtainly not as, when he arrived.

Naruto pushed it back.

"Eat. Now."

"But I don't wanna-"

"Now."

Sasuke grudgingly took every bite that was fed to him, yes, _fed, _and, though he didn't feel it at first, he was hungry.

"I-" He said through mouthfuls."m' not hungry..." Naruto laughed a little. Rice dotted Sasuke cheeks and the rest of his face and neck.

"Your always hungry." He came closer and closer as Sasuke leaned near the blonde boy, licking the chopsticks clean before Naruto pulled them away again. He smirked as he licked his own lips, slowly, torturingly.

Naruto slipped a nimble hand behind Sasuke's head and undid the tight ponytail. It hurt; Sasuke couldn't deny that, but the pain wasn't even noticable after a minute.

The hair was no longer very spikeys as it should have been when styled properly; it was soft and slightly wavey, but still in the same initial form.

"This is seriously..." Naruto began. Sasuke bit his lower lip in somwhat of a smile. "Turning you on?" Naruto paused, then sighed, saying,

"How'd you guess?" Sasuke smirked. Naruto inched closer, and when Sasuke found himself cold, he edge his knees onto the table. Naruto's hands unzippered the sweatshirt.

But then noticed a thin sweat was like fuel for a fire. His hands froze, his eyes widened. Naruto started to lick the sweet rice of his jaw and moving upwards until his tounge traced his lips.

Sasuke started to panic. _I'm scared...what do I do?_

"Too...hot..." He whispered. "I...c-can't..." Naruto's hands that were now untieing the ribbon to the apron.

"But its so cold...Sasuke...so cold outside that you _need _to stay warm."

"I'm...burning..." His fingers finding themselves intwined in his blonde hair.

_I'm too used to cold. I'll surley die..._

"Please let go."

"Your are...your so...hot..." Sasuke still stood partly frozen, unable to melt. He allowed the blonde to remove his second shit. His last.

_I know you love me but you can't do this..._

His hands moved by themselves, infact he almost tried to stop it, when he had removed his jacket and mostly unbuttoned the blonde boy's shirt.

_You can survive when your not made out of ice. You won't melt. _

Sasuke was shoved quite roughly on the harsh surface. The coldness shocked his body. It was like ice compared to the intence heat..

_Your not afraid like I am._

"Please...stop..." Kisses fluttered around his face. He could barley tell if he was awake, alive. It was so dream like it was hard to say no.

"Calm down."

_And I'm...so..._

Only his boxers were left on Naruto. Sasuke licked his lips, but as soon as he was through, a deep kiss, much more passionette than anything he had ever been through, was placed on his mouth. Teeth on his botton lip.

"S..stop...now."

Apron ribbon tied to thin, reddening wrists.

_Afraid._

Tears rolled down his eyes, on his lips, salty, tangy, painful. Blood, though only the tiniest trickle,

entwined with the crystaline tears. His arms flug loosley around broad shoulders, moving, lower, to the other's waist...

He was suddenly lifted, brial-style, into, to what he relized to be Naruto's bedroom.

_Stop it. I'll die. _

"Stop!"

_Even if I want it maby even more than you_

_You say I should let you do this_

_But if I did It would kill me_

_Don't you understand?_

_Didn't you know everything?_

_I'm too cold for you._

_I'm probably too cold for this world_

_The tightening in my chest_

_Its going to stop my heart_

_If I ever had one._

_The heat is going to melt me_

_My pride is going to crush me_

_But You told me nobody would have to know_

_But I know.  
And arn't I sombody? Maby I'm not._

_Maby your right.  
I shouldn't have doubted you, but I did_

_I don't know why but I can't trust you_

_I'm to dark. _

_Your light will kill me._

_You say thats not true._

_But I know it is.  
Maby I know more than you._

_You should be like me, I used to say, though I should take it back;_

_I wouldn't curse it on anyone._

_I can save myself a tear when I'm protected._

_Save blood._

_Save life._

_You say I need to be warm._

_You say it is my cold that will kill me._

_But I know your wrong. _

_Even if I want to be out of this dark, icey world of mine._

_So badley. _

_You'll never understand I want it more than you._

_But I can't. You blame it on yourself for me being this way_

_It's not your fault when nobody can help me_

_I don't understand why you you say I'm so innocent and perfect._

_So beautful when I'm not._

_But I knew you had been toying with my heart like people always do._

_Everybody know's Nobody's innocent. _

_And that their even farther from perfect._

"I'm sorry I hit you, Naruto." Sasuke whined. There was a very large dictionary-sized book that usually had it's place on Naruto's bedside table, but now had a dent in the corner and a bend in the front cover. He placed a hand on the other's, the one clutching his own head.

All he herd was a dissapointed grumbled and a few 'yeah, yeah's. He was rubbing the top of his head, buttoning his black jeans back on and then pulling his sweatshirt over his head.

"I thought you trusted me, Sasuke." He said, from across the moderate sized room, a wounded look shinning in his azure eyes.

"It's not that, baka." He shifted uncomfortable, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Then what?" He growled, slightly irritated. He marched over to where the bed was, Sasuke sitting on it's edge, adverting his eyes. Naruto grabbed him by the coller. Sasuke tenced, finger's grasped his arm. His teeth were visible, his eyes shimmering with fierocity. But then he relized Naruto would never hurt him. Didn't he know that from the start?

He did, it was true as well, but sothing about the boy couldn't let anyone get too close to him.

"Not very good at the 'submissive act' are you Sasu-kun." He let go slowly and took a few steps back.

"No. Why can't _you _be submissive?"  
"Because that would be...weird." Sasuke had to admitt, it would be stranger than if he was uke.

"Why don't you let your gaurd down? For me?"  
"Because I can't."

"Why?" Sasuke didn't answer. Naruto was so...close to...and then he had to...did Sasuke love him at all?

"Don't you love me Sasuke?" Naruto growled into his face, the deep, loud snarl causing a trickle of fear down his spine. He instantly started to coil his fingers around the other's neck.

"Why couldn't you ever trust anyone in your life?

He twitched, anger rising in his chest. He allowed Naruto's complaining to go on for another second.

"Are you that-"

"FINE! IF YOUR THAT DESPRATE, HERE!" Sasuke snarled, pulling off his sweatshirt he had just put back on and then his tight, black t-shirt. He crossed his arms over his bare chest.

"NO! NOW I'M TURNED _OFF_!" Naruto's nose was bumping against Sasuke's. He grabbed him by the coller and pulled him into a kiss, it lasted about five seconds, but Sasuke froze. His hands tightened around Naruto, eyes wide in disbelievement, and tears flew to his eyes in an instant.

"What? Scared again?" He said sarcastically, elbowing Sasuke. He turned Naruto's head himself to face the person in the door.

It was Iruka

**HAHAHAAA CLIFFIE!**

**I JUST HAD TO DO THAT!**

**I don't think I'll update...for a few days...just to see if I can get any reveiws.**

**SO IF YOU WANT AN UPDATE, REVIEW!  
Well, TTYL!**

**BankotsuChick!**


	13. Sitting on a parking garage

**Well, I didn't update for a while 'cuz I wanted to see if I could get one more reveiw **

**Thanks, LoversPastForgotten!**

**ONCE AGAIN: Please reveiw every chapter you finish reading AND that I can't format**

**LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE**

_I had waited so long to see your face again._

_Waited so long only to cry._

_I cryed then, because I cryed before, and I know _

_I'll sob for a long while after._

_Because it was the face_

_The face I wanted to see so long_

_That made me want to die._

_I never wanted to see you like that again._

_But I would. _

_Somhow I knew I would._

Naruto's eyes welled up with tears, the hot liquid burning down his cheeks like acid.

"Iruka...sensei.." The boy staggered across the room. Sasuke watched him, his heart bursting with anguish for him.  
The man winked, the blood running onto the hardwood floor, pony-tail cut and hair. He opened his mouth to say somthing, but a bullet wound that jaggedly slashed Iruka's upper leg open started to bleed.

The brunette winced. Then, all movement ceased.

Sasuke got up, not knowing if he wanted to interfere.

The tears that flew off his eyes were like rain as he collapsed infront of the two. He put a hand on Naruto's shoulder, witch was suprisingly relaxed. Iruka's scar across his nose was fresh; his broken nose, his permanent scars tearing the side of his face. The tears that pooled into Naruto's hand were now crimson, and Sasuke had a hard time looking.

Finally, he adverted his eyes.

"I'm so...sorry...I don't..." He stopped, and broke down. Naruto didn't flinch as he hung his arms over his neck."Fucking know!"

He sat there, Naruto sobbing quietly, his entire body shaking slightly. Finally, he stopped crying, and positioned himself so Iruka's head was in his lap. Sasuke's finger's gripped his shirt.

"I-I should be the one crying, you ass." Sasuke stopped, his eyes wide.

"Naruto?" Sasuke knew Naruto didn't have to know what he was going to ask.

"Yes. He's alive."

If sombody looked through the window, through the snow, the blood, the glass, the tears, they would see three boys, two of them in love, one of them in pain. But it was clear to anyone who did look.

However, your asking if sombody did, you'd be correct. Her name was Sakura Haruno.

owari

Sasuke slowly wound the bandages around his legs where they were bleeding most and then dabbed the blood off his face slowly with a cold, wet, washcloth.

He's head now rested in the raven-haired boy's lap, and with care, Sasuke tied the pony tail back with his own tie. Sasuke's hair was slightly flat, more than before when Naruto took it out; he had to get new product, but for now he'd lend it to Iruka.

After all, his hair was the least of his worries.

Naruto was in the kitchen trying to complete a ramen dish on his own while Iruka lay dying in his bed.

Sasuke had sent him there in the first place. He just couldn't let Naruto do this alone.

Naruto came back with a cup of hot ramen, and tried to wake the unconsious man, but to no avail.

He glanced over at Sasuke who had his head in his hands.

It had been about six hours since the time when he had seen Iruka's face, not shutting his eyes once.

He placed the steaming cup in Sasuke's cold hands; the younger boy gave an appriciative look and then turned to the man beside him. He was coughing, coughing alot. Blood trickled out of his mouth.

"Iruka...are you alright now?" The warm-chestnut eyes blinked open. He tried to sit up, but found himself much to weak. Sasuke handed the rest of the ramen to him.

"Please eat somthing, Iruka." Umino turned to his side, took the cup, and took less than a few noodled before it was returned. They sat in silence, until Iruka spoke.

"I-I...was...kinda..shocked to see you g-guys...like...that..." He blinked and smiled weakly. Naruto would have hit him; it was so obvious he did it to see Sasuke blush.

Sasuke pouted and balled up the ends of the pink, ruffled, 'kiss the cook' apron he had put on to avoid blood on himself.

"But I always...knew you would..end up..t-togather...from that first..k-kiss." Sasuke blushed more.

"Iruka stop trying to change the subject." Naruto bent down and put a hand on his shoulder. "What happened to Kakashi." Iruka frowned, and coughed again.

"I don't know.." A tear slid down his cheek.

"W-what the hell do you meen? Kakashi?" Naruto gave Sasuke's a suspicious look. "You know what I meen, you always know." He turned back to Iruka, holding his hand gently.

"No, I don't! The only person I knew who got hurt was Iruka! I never knew Kakashi had anything to do with this!"

Sasuke stood up. Iruka laughed weakly at the sight of him in a lacy pink apron that said 'kiss the cook'.

"Where is he? Is he..okay?"

Iruka looked troubled at the thought. "I don't know Sasuke. Please, try not to worry yourself. Please, he's a strong man."

"They have Kakashi but they let Iruka go?" Naruto shook his head as Iruka said, "Not exactly, kid."

Kakashi didn't know where he was or where he was going. All he knew was that it was dark.

He might even be dead. All he saw when he opened his eyes was blackness.

When he closed them, he saw Iruka.

And at this point, in all the pain he was in, knowing Iruka was safe was all that matters.

He didn't even care if he was dead anymore, as long as Iruka wasn't

"Sasuke wait!"

Sasuke stopped at the door.

"You can't leave!" Naruto yelled at him. "Thats so...inconsiderate!"

"Big words, dobe. Use them...on the right person."  
"Sasuke please..." It was Iruka. He turned to face him. "I'm not going to tell you to...stay...but will you do somthing for me?" Sasuke nodded.

"Naruto will you excuse me...this is very privite..." Naruto nodded and sat up slowly as left for the other corner of the room.

"Please tell Kakashi..." He whispered into his ear. "I love him." Sasuke looked shocked, but then nodded.

He was out of the room before Naruto noticed.

"Wait Sasuke I-"

He heard the kitchen door slam, meaning he was gabbing the cell phone that lay on the counter. Naruto knew him too well.

"-Need you..."

What would he do if somthing happened to Iruka?

He couldn't do it alone.

Sasuke sighed and fiddle for a while with the apron before he got up and walked out the door.

Naruto knew why he didn't want to reply.

It was because he was crying. Naruto couldn't go after him.

"Sasuke please wait!" He winced as the door slammed. Iruka turned onto his side and sighed.  
"I hate that bastard..." Naruto mumbled, as he leaned his back against the wall, head on knees.

He found that his eyesight was becoming blurry. He tentivly reached his hand to his eye and relized his finger was wet.

"Don't say things like that..Naruto.." Iruka said. "You love him and thats all there is to it."  
He didn't say anything more, and Naruto figured he was no longer awake.

He sighed.

"I wish it was that simple."

Sasuke banged on the door of Gaara's apartment.  
Three.

Four.

Five...

"Damn you, Gaara-baka."

Six

Seven

Eight...

"What the hell! Sasuke?" Gaara opened the door to stare down at the shorter man. Sasuke crossed his arms.

"I need to talk to you." Gaara's eyes darted around.

"I don't think this is a good time." He was in a loose navy-blue t-shit he had obviously just thrown on and a pair of white and red striped boxers.

Sasuke pushed him aside. "It's really important!" Gaara sighed. "You could at least close the door when you come in. Heating's expensive."

He stood in the kitchen and looked around, waiting for Gaara to join him. He had never been in Gaara's apartment before; it was _so _much nicer and more lavish than Naruto's. _Damn Dobe._  
"Gaara-teme, are you coming?" Neji yawned, pillow under his arm, only in a matching pair of boxers, the same as Gaara. Sasuke stared for a moment, eyes wide, trying to comprehend what happened before he was came.

"Hyuuga?"  
"Uchiha?" Neji blushed and used the pillow to cover his bare chest.

"W-what are you d-doing here?" Sasuke blushed and looked away, mumbling out of the corner of his mouth.

"I-I came to talk to Gaara...but apparently _you_ did more than that already..."

Neji sighed a nervous "What ever." and headed back to the room cursing the Uchiha for looking so damn hot today.

"Sasuke, in here." Gaara called, though he never really yelled, so Sasuke had to think a while before he knew what he had said. He walked into the living room, slightly shocked why Naruto's apartment looked like crap compared to Gaara's.

He sat down slowly on the brown leather couch.

"You told me once about where Iruka was."

"I told you, yes..."

"Well, long story short, we found Iruka." Gaara's eyebrows raised a little at this.

"But they took Kakashi." Gaara paused for a long silence, pools of thought swimming in his bright green eyes.

"How dose this have to do with me?" Sasuke sighed and stared directly into his eyes.

"Can you tell me anything? What do you know?"

"No. Nothing."

"Lier!" Sasuke marched up to him. "Your going to tell me all you know." Gaara smirked. Sasuke grasped him by the coller of his shirt. He tightened his grip when he saw Gaara slight grin.

"Pretty tough..." Gaara whispered. "For somone so...scrawney."

"I am not scrawney!" He gritted his teeth, eyes in a death-glare. "Stop trying to change the damn subject!"

Gaara, who was signifigantly taller than Sasuke, lifted his arm of his coller and pushed him a few feet back.

"I told you I...don't..." He watched as tears welled up in Sasuke eyes. He put a hand on his shoulder, but it was pushed away.

"Please...you stupid...idiot...stop crying...you made me want to actually help you." Sasuke looked up with big, ebony eyes.

"Gaara..."  
Gaara sighed, reached into his pocket, and stuffed a piece of paper into Sasuke hands. Sasuke looked at Gaara, who was pouting, then the inkstained paper. He hugged Gaara, tightly, mouthing a 'thank you', before he looked back at him with a broad grin. Gaara blushed.

"Uchiha!" He said as Sasuke sprinted pasted Neji, who was eating a blueberry muffin, to the door. He turned his head as he placed his hand on the golden door knob.

"Don't tell...anyone..._anyone,_ Sasuke, that I helped you." He said in a lower tone than usual.

"...sure..." Sasuke smiled slightly and then shut the door with a loud 'SLAM'. Gaara stared at the door where Sasuke had last been, as if frozen by Sasuke's icey presence to the spot.

"Fallen under the spell of the Uchiha yet, Gaara?" Gaara turned. It was Neji. He sighed and shook his head, like he was really thinking that over. Then he turned to his lover, and looked him in the eyes.

"No. My heart..." He kissed him on the cheek. "Belongs to you."

"Good." Neji smiled.

There was a pause.

"Are you coming back to bed?"  
"You bet."

"Sasuke's been gone...a long, long time, Iruka..."

"I-I know...he'll be back...s-soon..." Naruto rested his back against the creamy-colored wall paper and sighed.

Iruka was cirtainly strong; he was sitting up, but Naruto wouldn't allow him to walk due to a bullet wound in his right leg.

_Sasuke..._He thought, his heart beating faster. _Please be...okay..._

_I only cause pain to you._

_You were scared and alone._

_It was all my fault._

_I used to wish I didn't have this curse about me._

_I wished that when I came people would smile._

_Not cry._

_Then I found that_

_Wishing won't help me_

_It's not somthing to pass the time_

_It's not somthing that helps me sleep at night._

_It's somthing thats not real._

_Just like me._

_I'm fake. Everything about me is fake._

_What he sees in me.._

_I know is_

_Fake._

_The first person to ever_

_Love me..._

_Is gone because of _

_me.  
I stare down at my hands_

_The're so...bloody..._

_But the worst part is..._

_It's his blood._

_I know it._

_So dose he._

"K-kaka...shi..." A small, faint voice awoke Naruto. He stared at Iruka, who was mumbling in his sleep.

_...Kakashi..._

"I-I...miss...you..." When the words reached his ears, a image of Sasuke flashed into his mind. _I miss you too, Sasuke. And I wish I had told you I loved you before you left._

Sasuke's legs ached.

In his mind burned a image of Kakashi when he had left him in Konoha.

_Don't worry. Please don't worry._

"I promise to help...you" Sasuke whispered as he looked up at the adress. It was the same on the ink-stained paper.

"I won't let you down...Like I did everyone eles."

"What do you want with Sasuke?"

Kakashi Hitake asked, wiping the blood streaming down his chin.

There was no answer.

"He's going to come here." He rubbed the large, open gash on his side, and winced.

No answer.

"Please, he's just a boy..." There was a long silence, a silence that engulfed him. For a long time all Kakashi could here was his own heartbeat.

"Yes, but a boy who is destined to..."

_No..._

"Die..."

"You need to go." Naruto turned to Iruka, who was sitting up and dirnking the mug of water that lay beside him.

He took a long, thoughtful sip.

"You need to go to him."

"But Iruka..." Iruka grasped his hand, and gave him a sincere smile."Please...I'll be fine."

"I don't know if he needs me anymore. Even if I do need him..."

"Tell me somthing, Naruto." Naruto slipped on his signature headband on then his jaket as Iruka stared up at him.

"What...is it Iruka..?"

_  
A long time ago you told me somthing. Somthing I will never forget._

_"Naruto...don't you have somone to go home to?"  
"I wish I did. But I...don't..."_

_"Is there somone you have to love you?"  
"...no...but..."_

_"Is there somone...you have to protect?"  
"Theres...me I guess..."_

_"Do you love anyone?"_

_"...no..."_

"Do you have somone to go home to every night?" Naruto paused. He remembered this. The kids, the teachers, everybody would ask him and pity for it. Waves of his childhood sadness washed over him.

"Yes. It's Sasuke...well now it is."

"Is there somone you know will love you no matter what?"

"Yeah...I think its...Sasuke."

"Is there somone you have to protect?"

"I'll protect Sasuke with my life."

"Do you love anyone?"

"Yes. I love Sasuke with all my heart."

Naruto stared at Iruka until he nodded and left the room, door halfway open. Iruka smiled to himself as he heard the door slam.

_Thats the same kid? Truley Unbelievable._

Sasuke stood in the doorway of the warehouse.

_I'm not sure I'm enough._

"I'm really hoping...your here..."

_Can I feel your presence?_

Sasuke shut his eyes and took a deep breath, and clenched his shaking fists.

_Kakashi...yes...You are here..._

Sasuke smiled, but it was grimly if it even was a smile in the first place.

"I can here your heartbeat..."

_But can I be sure...?  
_Snow fell on his raven colored hair and down his face. He tilted his head up slightly, enjoying the numbing sensation that fell opon his body.

_Do I know to trust just my ears?_

"Kakashi..."

_I know now it wasn't just my ears._

"I can feel your love."

_It was my own beating heart..._

"I wish I had told you I loved you before..." A piece of an icey crystal acted as a mock tear as it melted on his warm cheek.

_It was beating in the rythm of yours._

**_REVIEW AND I'LL UPDATE!_**


	14. Gunna get hit cuz you can't always dodge

**I was kinda confused on this chapter, but I still find it very good I hope you guys give me suggestions!  
Thanks again!  
BankotsuChick**

**LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE**

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke whirled around, his eyes wide. It was him. His long, flowing black hair was unmistakable.

The images of the snakes in his dream seemed to coil around his windpipe.

"No..."

"Finally."

Sasuke gripped his cell phone, well, Naruto's anyway, and spat;

"Where the fuck is Kakashi!" Sasuke hated the way he moved back against the wall, his back pressing against the brick, sweat breaking out on his forehead.

"Kakashi..." He said, a tounge tracing thin lips. "Will be fine."

"How do I know, you bastard?"  
"Because of..." He called some inaudible word or two that Sasuke was to nervous to here. "...This.."

Sasuke's heart lept.

"What in seven hells..." He sighed in one breath as his eyes fell opon Kakashi. "...have you done to him..."

Kakashi's mask was still there, but torn, and his breathing was harsh. Blood oozed out of his arm and right leg, while his matted, soaked, silver hair dripped onto the floor where he knelt and hung in his face.

He no-longer had much of a shirt, and he was only wearing thin reminents of his jeans.

Tears welled up in his eyes. He ran to the man, kneeling beside him.

"Oh Kakashi! It's all my fault..."

Kakashi looked up, the red eye that Sasuke had grown to love was swolen shut. Tears spilled over his face.

"I'm so sorry..." Kakashi grinned as Sasuke cried. "Whats so...funny you...bastard..."

"I've never seen you cry...before...Sasuke..even in seven years." Sasuke felt like slapping him, but instead embrased him deeply.

"I have to tell you all the things that have happened to me here...Naruto and I..we-" More tears overflowed his eyes as he spoke to Kakashi.

"Shh..." Kakashi placed a finger on his lips and felt the burning tears that stained his face. "I told you I havn't seen you cry..." Sasuke closed his eyes, drinking in the firmilliar sound of his voice. "And I never want to again."

"I'm sorry..." Sasuk bit his lower lip. "I guess I failed you again...because I can't stop crying. I look stupid, but I just can't help it, Kakashi!" Kakashi slipped off his mask so it bunched on his chin.

"It's okay...to cry somthimes...somthimes..."

Kakashi kissed him on the forehead, then after a few seconds, his lips. Sasuke was startled at first, but then kissed him back and chocked out another sob, knowing the truth. It wasn't a lover's kiss like one between Neji and Gaara , or a boyfriends like his and Naruto's and Lee's to Sakura, it was the only way to say 'I love you' that he could imagine strong enough.  
"I..Iruka said he loves you!" Sasuke said as wet, sloshy snow weighed down his hair. Kakashi laughed to himself.

"Oh that one...yes I should..." Sasuke looked up at him, knowing they'd be sepperated again. Weather it was a couple of tears that slid down Kakashi's face were the snow or of his own accord, he would never know.

"Sasuke stays..." Kakashi nodded grimly at the words, knowing he couldn't rescue Sasuke now.

Men stepped back as Kakashi walked through the row of them.  
"Hey, Sasuke!" He called out. Sasuke was still kneeling in the mud, hair in his face. "Your a hell of a kisser!"

Sasuke smiled.  
"...I wish I could say the same!" Sauske laughed for the first time in a long time. He winked, to let Kakashi know he was kidding.

He only wished he had kissed him again before he watched Kakashi dissapear.

Kakashi ran through the streets of Konoha, wind rushing against his face, his lips still burning from they had touched Sasuke's last.

_Sasuke-kun, _He thought, his mind focused on finding Naruto's apartment. _Don't be afraid._

Knowing Naruto all to well, Kakashi didn't bother for a key. He still remembered the number, too, he had gotten it from Iruka when he had left before he had.

Kakashi didn't bother with the elevator, he raced up the stairs, each step causing him pain in his side.

By the time he had gotten to the fourteenth floor, his leg's burned and he was bleeding again, but only slightly.

His breathing was harsh and ragged, and he only felt he had the strenth to knock three times.

Then, on the third knock, the door swung open.

_Naruto, _He thought as he stepped inside, instantly loving the heated feeling of the warm apartment. _You really have to learn to keep the door locked._

He wandered through the kitchen, and after seachering for any signs of life, went into what he knew to be Naruto's bedroom.

There, he found what he had been looking for.

Iruka lay on the bed, asleep, from what he could see, and Kakashi found himself yawing.

He looked outside as snow fell over a cresent moon. Kakashi slipped off his blood stained t-shirt, and slipped under the warm douvet.

Before he fell asleep, he felt warm arms around him and soft words.

"I love you, Kakashi.

Naruto didn't know he was crying until he saw the tears drip onto his hands.

"Why the hell am I..." He thought of Sasuke suddenly and more tears fell off his face. "...crying..."

_"I promise I'll never leave you..."_

He had no leads, and no where to go.  
_"I love you."_

Where could Sasuke..possibley be?

_"Naruto, I'm not beautiful like you think. I only hurt people."_

He stood up and started walking. He didn't know where he was going, or how he was going there. He didn't even remember walking.

_"I shouldn't be with you, I'll only cause pain."  
_"Sasuke...I hope your okay..."

_"But without you...I'm really not anything, am I?"  
_His heart ached as he ran. He leg's ached to carry him and his heavy heart.

_"Oh, Sasuke thats not true. Your everything."_

The snow was turning into a freezing rain.

_"I can tell your sad, though, Sasu-kun"_

_"I'm always sad because I'm always running from everything that scares me. Even if thats not the only thing, Naru-chan."_

He knew somwhere, Sasuke was sad again. It was raining.

_"Sasuke you don't have to run anymore."_

Sasuke hated the rain.

_"Why not? I always have to run and I always will."_

Now even Naruto hated it.

_"Just hold me hand...and I'll walk with you."_

Because he loved Sasuke.

Sasuke was cold and wet and he wished only he had never left Naruto.

He was slightly bloody and he knew his life was running out.

"...Sasuke..."

Sasuke whirled around. It was him.

"I don't want to kill you just yet..."  
"Why not? Just get it over with." Sasuke's heart was pounding. He shouldn't have said it. A knife glinted in the moolight.

The taller man licked his lips as he bent down to Sasuke's level and pressed the knife against his neck. Sasuke felt the blood pounding in his veins.

"...please...I didn't tell...I... loved..." The man pressed the blade until blood trickled down his neck and into his shirt. He whined like a wounded puppy, and he hated himself for it. Why did death have to be like this?

"What's this..." He stopped, and Sasuke held back tears. "Who is this woman that you love, Sasuke...?"

When Sasuke didn't reply, he placed the blade on his shoulder. Sasuke whined again as he drew blood.

"Then it's not a woman?"  
Sasuke nodded, but only so slightly.

"Then who is this man..." Four tear shaped slashes bit into his shoulder blade, right near his neck. "Who's captured your heart?"

As if on cue, a couple of seconds later a cell phone rang in his pocket. Sasuke knew to draw it out.

The caller I.D read 'Gaara' from the contacts list, but Sasuke knew it was Naruto using his phone.

The one opposite him pulled it from his hands and pressed the send button.

"You have seven days."

Then he crushed the cell phone with his foot, and left Sasuke all alone.

Naruto froze, the voice still ringing in his ears.

_Seven days...but where and how?_

"Did you finally find out what you needed to know?" Gaara sighed. He was tired of doing all these favores he had been doing for everyone. He was practically dragged out of bed by Naruto and he was pretty sure Neji was getting annoyed with this too, especially when it had been fifteen minutes after Sasuke had left.

It was already 9:30, and for some reason or another, Gaara was _exhausted._

Neji decided at this point to leave when Naruto left.

"Thank you Gaara. Yes, I did."

Neji left as Naruto left, both closing the door behind them. Gaara found himself incredibly alone.

Kakashi hadn't really fallen asleep when he woke up.

Iruka was already awake, as if watching over him. Kakashi grinned.

"We shouldn't really free-loading off Naruto." Iruka nodded. "Let's go back to my place."

Naruto was dence, and when he saw Neji limping, he decided to, instead of taking the stairs with him,

convinced him to take the elevator.

"How are things...?" Naruto asked, watching Neji stand akwardly. "You don't look so good; maby you should have stayed at Gaara's."  
"Damn, Gaara..." He whispered, so quietly that Naruto couldn't here him. "It's his fault anyway."

"Did you walk here, Neji?" Naruto asked, quietly. Neji nodded. "His place is kinda close, and it's a big city, so natrually I walked."

"Can you walk home?"  
"I'm fine." Naruto was hoping for a 'no'. It was getting lonley without Sasuke and he craved company.

"Naruto, what happened to Sasuke...?" Naruto's heart lept. "...nothing..."

"I know your lying." Naruto sighed. "I know you know." He felt like crying more. _Sasuke used to say the same thing...this is too much...I miss him too much..._

The elevator opened, Neji almost fell over, but Naruto cauught him."Your coming home with me."

"I can take care of myself." _The last time I believed Sasuke, somthing happened to him..._

"No...I made this mistake to many times." Neji growled. "I told you I-" Naruto let him fall this time and he landed on his face.

"What was that for, you bastard!"  
"I thought you didn't need my help." Neji thought this over, and then winced as he tried to stand up. "I don't."

"Why are you so sore anyway?" Neji blushed. "N-no reason.." When Naruto saw him blush, he was pretty sure he knew.

"So you and Gaara..."

"Shut up! Did not!"

"Then I guess I should just...leave you here?" Naruto waited as he stepped out of the door into the cold, frosty night. The door was closing as Neji swallowed his pride and shouted:

"Wait!" Naruto smiled. _I knew it...I'm stuck with all the prideful, arrogant, prestigius asses who all won't admitt they need my help._

"...Sorry...Just I'm used to having to take care of myself, thats all. It's just weird to have you help me...so if anyone asks, its me helping _you._" Naruto laughed slightly and held out his hand to Neji.

"It's okay, Neji." He said as Neji gripped his hand and stood up. "Everyone needs somone when they fall."

**Okay, I know, kinda weird, between Kakashi and Sasuke, but did you like it? Is there anything I can change?**

**Please reveiw! I can't get enough reveiws!**

**BankotsuChick**


	15. Like the job, make enough money

**Thanks so much you guys for reveiwin!**

**I know I'm a totally bad speeller, ahem, I meen speller, but it can't be helped, I'm usising somthing that dosn't have spell check.**

**A beta reader would be greatly appriciated to anyone who wants it.**

**I'm kinda stuck on the plot...open to all suggestions!**

**BankotsuChick**

Sasuke was cold and hungry. But as Naruto said, he was always hungry.

Maby then...he wasn't at all.  
He wished Naruto would come back and help him, he couldn't help but wish even though he shouldn't have.

"I should learn to live on my own...again.." He remembered his old life back where he had moved back with Kakashi seven years ago. His life had become so pretected, so cousioned. It made him digusted in himself.

He stared into the blackness, seeing only Naruto when he opened and closed his eyes.

It was truley shocking to him how much he missed that dobe.

"Neji, you can sleep on the couch." The Hyuuga yawned.

"Sure."  
Naruto left to get a blanket for him, but by the time he got back, Neji was already alseep on the couch.  
Naruto sat down next to him, drapped the blanket around the Hyuuga, and Neji, unconsiously for he never would have done this in consious, snuggled closer. Naruto brushed the hair out of his face.

He was so much like Sasuke.

This is when he found himself moving away.

"I like you Neji, but it's Sasuke who I..." He sighed. _I don't think I've ever been this lonley..._

"Move over Neji."

Naruto sighed, his heart-rate increasing as he thought of Sasuke. His breathing became harsh, and his mind was racing. He shifted uncomfortably.

What if Sasuke didn't...

What if he didn't...

Naruto shivered as he wiped the sweat of his pale forehead. He was silently relieved as Neji burried his head into his arm.

"Oh, Sasuke..." He said as he brought Neji as close as he could. "I hope this dosn't count as cheating."

"I don't know where he is!" Naruto hissed "How will I ever save him if I don't know where he is!"

Neji sighed as he sipped a cup of steaming coffee, enjoying the slightly burning sensation that warmed his whole face.  
"I can help you, although I don't know myself."

"What help woud you _possibley_ be?"  
"I don't know. I can try can't I? Just give me one chance."  
Naruto sighed.

"Fine. I have no fucking leads or anything at all. I'm open to anything."

Neji sighed.

"I should be getting back to Gaara..." Neji sighed again, but Naruto shook his head. "I need your help, and Gaara's not really...well you know...people friendly."

The hyuuga nodded and put his head on his hands, yawning. Naruto did the same, as if the yawn was contagious.

"Sasuke...you will never know how much I love you..." Neji would pretend he didn't here that and pulled on his coat.

"Where are you going..." He said, in a tone that made it sound more like a statment. "What do you think? I'm searching for Sasuke. I'm suprise you haven't thought of just going down there- I meen he's _your _lover."

"He's not my-"

"What ever, Naruto. Let's go."

Sasuke couldn't believe he had six days to live.

"We need your help, both of you."

Kakashi scratched his head and yawned, just as Iruka apeared at the door. Iruka gave him the why-are-here-it's seven-in-the-morning look but rolled his eyes and asked Naruto;

"How may we be of service?" Neji's jaket covered half his face. "We it would help if you didn't leave us out here while you talked to us...that is _If. You. Don't. Mind._"

Kakashi gave Naruto a look and mouthed the word 'fiesty' and Naruto shrugged.

"Please...come in."

Neji sipped a hot cup of apple cider as he half-listened to Naruto and Iruka's almost silent conversation.

"So...wearhouse?"  
"Yes, but it's too obvious, and you and I both know that it's too dangerous as well."

Kakashi nodded.

"You can tell by the wounds we've suffered; he's right."

"I'm always right." Kakashi rolled his eyes. "You wish." And shuved Iruka of the couch.

"Damn you!" Neji sighed with bordom as he watched Iruka push Kakashi back. Kakashi clutched his arm.

"Not...funny." He breathed. Iruka sighed. He knew when Kakashi Hitake was kidding.

"Please, this is important you guys." They both turned to Naruto who was crossing his arms and waiting for an answer. "And please hurry; Neji looks bored out of his skull."

Neji heared he was mentioned, but showed no sign of it.

"All I'm saying is you guys were there. We need leads. Can you help us." He said it like he said the other previous sentences. Iruka sighed-it was long and thoughful, and Naruto winced. He knew, after knowing him for so long, that nothing good was coming.

"Naruto look. I'm not telling you, because you can't go there by yourself. I'm actually really suprised they havn't killed him yet. I meen, wasn't that the whole reason for capturing us? Unless...knowing him..."

Kakashi nodded gravely, and watched with slight curiousity the way Naruto reacted to Sasuke's name. But he would ask further questions later.

"You can't go alone. You have no idea how dangerous that is. You'd be putting your lives in dan-"

"I don't fucking care! All I care about is getting Sasuke back!" Naruto slammed his fists against the coffee table. Kakashi raised an eyebrow. What was Sasuke trying to tell him about Naruto? He decided to be sympathetic.

"Oh, maby we can get Sakura to come!" _That should get him a little less..angry._ Kakashi was suprised when Naruto glared at him. Didn't he like Sakura?

"She dosn't know. She won't care. I'm really not in the mood for a perky, pink, annoying-"  
"What's going on?" Kakashi was dying to know. "What's gotten into you?"  
"What do you meen?"  
"I meen that when the last time I saw you, you loved Sakura, you hated Sasuke, and you were alot less serious. Can you please explain?" Iruka looked at Naruto, and Naruto looked at Iruka.

"Wow, Kakashi. You're slow." Neji commented. Kakashi pulled down his mask to stick his tounge out, witch was strange to see, but non-the-less, expected.  
"That's not important, Kakashi..."  
"Stop trying to change the subject! What happened!"

"I'm not trying to-"

"Yes you are! Just tell me!"  
"Kakashi I-"

"Naruto, please te-"

"SASUKE AND I ARE GOING OUT! There I said it!" Kakashi gulped. _Good thing I didn't tell him I basically made-out with his boyfriend._

It was really quiet for a moment, Neji stopped drinking the apple cider and his eyes were wide for a minute until he sighed. How boring. After a while, a suprisingly long while, Kakashi spoke up.

"Oh...so that explains it all...yeah, so...ummm...have you done it?" Who would have guessed that would be Kakashi's first question.

"No! Shut up!"  
"Oh so that means-"

"Look, we're really into your life story and your love-issues, Naruto, but Kami please, get on with it!"

They all stared at Neji. It was true, who would want to here everything ...from the lies to the cheating...

"_Please._"

"Naruto as much as I'd like to help you, you can't you alone..." Naruto knew what was coming. But by the way Neji reacted, with 'no, no, holy shit no', it was like he knew too.

"We're coming with you two. That's final."

Neji sighed and gave Naruto the 'you know that we could have done it ourselves were 22' look, and Naruto shot back a 'I know, I know,' but then gave up.  
"When can we leave?" Naruto said, physically pulling Neji out of the chair. He didn't notice Kakashi pulling on his coat.

"Right now." _I just can't leave him all alone anymore.'_

_I know you worry about me  
But you shouldn't_

_Your better off without me_

_Even though you say you couldn't._

_But I don't believe that_

_I don't believe anything anymore_

_I promised my self the last time it failed me_

_I would never do it again_

_But what's a promise, anyway?_

_To myself no less._

_I don't know. I don't know anything anymore._

_I don't even know If I'm real_

_How should I know if our love is?  
All I ever feel now is hate. _

_I forget so fast what love feels like_

_I feel ashamed I've forgotten what your kiss is like_

_It's slipping through my fingers slick and wet like rain._

_But then I relized that makes it_

_Just like tears._

_You told me that somtimes its good to rain_

_That it makes things grow and live.  
Wouldn't it then make it..._

_Good to cry? _

_Just because I cry alot..dosn't mean every tear isn't like acid._

_But you say it's good to cry._

_What have I been then...if your right...without rain?_

_I don't want to find out so I'll keep hiding from it._

_Hate's the only real thing in my life_

_It's hard, it's like ice. _

_Wait-who am I kidding. It is ice. _

_It's me._

_The rain's like you, but wouldn't that make you tears too?  
You might as well be._

_But don't worry, I'm tears like you._

_But hardened tears turned to ice._

_I'm sorry but..._

_Now Love is just a word to me._

_Nothing more. Nothing less._

Sasuke licked the blood dripping down his forehead to his lips. The salt burned the chapped flesh and pain pulsed through his veins. It calmed him slightly, and he rested his head against the wall. He felt the chains weighing down his legs. He smiked at how many jokes Naruto could have made about his situations.

"Missing your lover?"  
"He's not my lover." His he tried to control his rapid breathing. "Why are you here, and why arn't I dead." He traced his finger around the snarl that bordered Sasuke's face. Feeling the touch, he snapped at it, like the movment of a caged beast.

"Animalistic. I would have thought better of you..." Sasuke's shoulders tenced. "Sasuke..kun.."

"Don't call me..that...just answer my questions." A shiver rippled down Sasuke's spine. He twinged, his fingers curling into a fist.

_That hate...It's almost as strong as the love I feel for you._

"Because I like to see..." He paused, Sasuke's heart racing. He thought it was going to stop. "My victims _squirm _with fear...before they die." Blood pounded in his ears.  
_Naruto I need your strenth._

Sasuke hated giving him the advantage.

_I need a guide because I'm blind._

It was true, he couldn't deny it, that fear corsed through his blood, like poison, slowly paralizing him.

_What happened to walking with me?_

He watched the other's eyes in the darkness, faintly glowing in the light of the moon. They were the kind of eyes that didn't betray any emotion. The worst kind.

_All I'm doing now..._

_Even while chained..._

_My heart's beating to fast..._

"And I can see it. The fear...swimming in your eyes...the fear of your master."

"Master...?"

_I don't listen to anyone._

The man smirked and turned, his pale, almost silver skin the color of moonlight.

"So beautiful to look at...but so dangerous to touch. Isn't that was _he _learned the hard way? Your-"

"Shut up!" The shackles on his legs pinned him as he lunged. "That was a long time ago!"

"But scars are perminent."

_The lives I've ruined..._

"So is death." He didn't reply, but left one statment that chilled him to the bone:

_Is that why your not helping me?_

"You know, Sasuke, you _are _like a caged animal. Pretty, Sad, Afraid, and short lived.

_Your going to let me die?_

**Kinda weird...but I love writting the Sasuke parts! LOL!**

**I have really no ideas...so unless you want another filler...I guess I can make a mini-plot or somthing...lol **

**REVEIW!**

**BankotsuChick**


	16. Laughs because he thinks its funny

**Thanks for the reveiws!**

**This fic is far from over and I finally figure out more of the plot!**

**Until next time!**

**BankotsuChick**

"Turn on the heater." Neji demanded, rubbing his hands togather. Naruto 'huffed' and crossed his arms.

"Will you stop complaining?"

"He's your boyfriend."

"But it was you who..." Naruto noticed Neji had stopped talking and Kakashi was staring at them.

"Did what?"  
"Nothing."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow and turned back, his elbows on the dashboard. "Hurry up. You drive like my mother."

"Neji..." Naruto growled. "I swear I'm about to-" He put his face in Neji's to increase his meaning. "hurt you!"

"Really..." Neji sighed, his face calm. "Then why don't you-"

Iruka took a sharp turn and Naruto landed ontop of Neji, crushing their lips togather.

Gaara had heard the things that had been going on; they were going to find out, and he knew it. He couldn't let them do it either.

He worried about Neji being with Naruto when he had seen the two going home togather, but he noted he was being to protective. It was quite a shock, too, that he was protective at all.

'Temari..." He growled at his sister as she watched T.V and listened to her Ipod at the same time. Damn, she just _had_ to visit, _today _of all days.

"What!" He voice was getting irritating, and loud since she couldn't here him well. Kankurro pulled the headphone's out and both boy's could here the blasting music.

"Jeeze, Gaara. Don't be such a tight-ass." Gaara's eyes narrowed. "I need.." He hissed. "To borrow your car..."

"Why, you have one." He sighed. If they saw it was his car, he would get noticed. Nobody new Temari's new car or it's lisens plate.

"...Because..." He said, trying to keep his cool. "...I just do..." She sighed, fumbled through the pocket of her white leather purse, and tossed the jingling keys at Gaara. He caught them effortlessly.

"Just don't scratch the paint. We all know how you do that." Gaara rolled his eyes at the mention of him crashing his parent's car. Shame, it was his father's Farrari too.

"Got it."  
"Good."

Gaara sighed at stepped out the door, only hopelessly wishing it could be warm.

"I'm telling you they did!" Sakura growled, clearly irritated. Rock Lee rolled his eyes and put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's totally impossible."

"No!" Sakura had been trying for fifteen minutes to convince her boyfreind of what she saw. Iruka, bloody and hurt, Kakashi in the same condition...and where the hell are Sasuke, Neji, Naruto and Gaara?

"Lee, Please Listen to me." Lee blushed as she grabbed onto his arm and begged. "Please! Can we just fallow them?"

"That would be incredibly dishonest."  
Sakura pouted.

"But fun." She smiled. Ino was right. He really was the perfect guy. She whipped out her cell as they both jumped into Lee's car.

"Who are you calling, Saku-chan?"

"Ino and Skikimaru. It won't really be fun unless they come, will it?"  
"No, it won't." But Sakura wouldn't know that this would be one of the most regretted mistakes of her life.

Sasuke lay on the cold floor, his stomach aching from what he had ate last.

Or at least that's what he told himself.

_I'm not hungry. I'm not hungry. _

The wounds in his flesh were burning every second of his consiousness, and he would cry out in his sleep in pure agony. His eyes were dull, his heart burned only one peace; to die. He didn't want to live anymore if it ment pure totrure.  
His eye lids were always heavy now; he couldn't really tell if it was fatigue anymore, but when finally shut them, he couldn't feel his his will to live. He couldn't feel Naruto's love.

_Naruto lay on the grass, his blue eyes gleaming._

_The cool breeze wiped his golden hair against his toned skin, hands behind head, gazing at the ivory starts that glinted in the blue of the night. Sasuke was there, too, and it was perfectly warm, not cold nor hot, to sit next to him. Hand in hand, both hearts beating to the same rythm._

_"Arn't they beautiful, Sasuke?"_

_Naruto asked as he turned his eyes to Sasuke, the moon casting a ghostly shimmer against Sasuke's skin. He traced the air with his finger to make the shape of the stars._

_"What, Naruto. I don't see anything." _

_The lights of the city were too far off to see. The only thing that penatrated the deep silence was the soft murrmers of the waves and the calm voices whispering to eachother. _

_"Yes, you do. Look harder." Sasuke's eyes squinted. _

_"There's nothing there, Naruto-chan." Naruto shook his head. Sasuke looked into his eyes that were fixacted on the sky. They were full of the stars. Then why couldn't he see them?_

_"You're doing it wrong, Sasuke. All wrong." He squeezed his hand. "You don't look with your eyes."_

_"Then how the hell are you suppose to see them?" Sasuke pouted. Naruto laughed a little._

_"You look with your heart." Naruto leaned over, placing a kiss on his lips.  
_

Sasuke woke up, a cold sweat breaking across his fore head.

Had that really been Naruto in his dream? It seemed to real. Yet so unreal at the same time.

His heart was pounding, and the blood rushing thorugh his body.

It was him. Naruto. His cheeks were burning in the cold air, his lips remembering the sweet touch.

He was sure of it. Sasuke wasn't forgotten. And he wouldn't forget Naruto either.

Why would he? He finally remembered it. It was stronger than ever.  
He loved him.

"...So...your a two-timer?..."

_Sigh. _"I really thought you were more loyal to Sasuke than that..."  
"Wait, do that again. I'll get my camra-phone."

"Kakashi you pervert!"  
Neji was blushing furiously, them finally regained enough consiousness to push Uzimaki off him. Naruto hated blushing. He knew he didn't look cute like when Sasuke did it. And he hated being embarassed.

It was too much like when he had kissed Sasuke for the first time-unexpected, embarrassing, and undeniably wanted.  
"It was a fucking accident! Get off my back!"  
"You get off Neji's." Kakashi loved making fun of his young friends. Almost too much.

"It's not like that, okay?"  
"It was an accident..." Neji said quietly. "Due to your horrible driving."  
"Yea, Iruka!" Iruka gulped and dropped the subject quickly. Neji sat akwardly next to Naruto.

Kakashi looked back and was about to say somthing, but Iruka elbowed him.

"I wasn't going to-" Iruka did it again. "Stop it!"

"Stop talking!"

Neji listened to the two bickering. He turned to Naruto and said slowly:

"That never happened."

"Agreed."

Sakura had called Ino, who really didn't seem interested.

"Your closer to him anyway, and I think by now you should stay out of Sasuke and Naruto's buisness."

"Yea...it'll be too troublesome."

Sakura rolled her eyes.  
"Pleeeeease?" She did her annoying, nasley voice. Ino whispered to Shikimaru, and from what Sakura could here, they were deciding.

"Well, Saku-chan, we'd rather not put up with your whining..."

"Soooo..."

"We're going."

"Yes!"  
"We'll meet you outside out place in five minutes."

"We're already here."

"What?"  
"You herd me." She sighed through the line. "Shikimaru, get on your coat."

"How troublesome."

"Get ready for somthing you...might...not want to see." Iruka fumbled with his words, and unbuckled his seat belt.

Neji looked at Naruto who looked at Neji. There was something that went on behind the two pairs of eyes, somthing less than love but more than friendship for sure, but in a few seconds, Neji flickered his eyes to a car parked outside the warehouse, barley visible.

"Nice car..." Naruto turned Neji's head to a orange lamborghini. Neji's eyes windened.

"Your such an...idiot!"  
"What!"

"Iruka, Kakashi, Naruto. Don't let your selves be seen by that car. I've got a bad feeling."  
They all nodded.

"We find Sasuke, kick their sorry asses and get out?"  
"Leave the ass kicking out of this." There was a sigh from the blonde. "Fine. Let's go."

"You know he's no match for you. Why the fuck did you even dare to tell him."

A man with thick, long, raven colored hair stood infront of him, a smile gracing his lips.

"Why not kill him too? Then I won't have to deal with the vitim's left behind lover and family. But since the only person you really have left is Naruto, that will come chasing after me anyway, he should die too."

"No. Leave him out of this! It's between you and me! Not Naruto!"

_I can't be with him anymore if I cause him pain. I just can't._

His concerns were met with a deep, menecing laugh.

"Let's make this...interesting."

Naruto's heart was beating out of his chest. Neji pulled out a gun from his back pocket. Naruto saw Iruka raise and eye brow. Naruto saw this, but lost most interest and inspected the heavy black door.

"Where the hell did you get that?" Naruto whispered as he looked at the lock on the warehouse. Neji sighed.

"Just thought we'd need it, is all." Kakashi gave a grave look to Naruto. Naruto nodded slowly.

It was the kind of look that you would never have to ask what he ment. You just knew.

Kakashi was preparing Naruto for the worst. He whipped a blade out from his pocket and unlocked the door hinge.

"Pretty skilled."  
"I know."

Sakura pulled up to where she had been fallowing their car, but she went around the other side of the warehouse, to the side, about 200 feet away. Thankfully nobody had noticed. Wouldn't that just spoil all the fun? A glint of shiny metal caught her eye.

It was a flashy car for sure, quite expensive looking too, and there was sombody in it. Lee saw it too, and by the looks of it so did Ino and Shikimaru.

"Is that who I think it is?" Shikimaru whispered. Lee turned to him and nodded. The man got out of the car and opened a door with a quite creak of the hindge.

"Look! Naruto, Kakashi, Iruka, and Neji!" Ino fallowed Sakura's extended finger and gasped. It was true, they were all there, on the opposite side of the building where they had seen the man in the lamborghini. Where was Sasuke? Why wasn't he with them?  
Nobody had time to say anything eles before Sakura made the first move to start advancing.

"This is dangerous. Maby we should turn back.."

"Yeah, this little adventure is getting out of control."

"Life's about adventures."

Sakura wished she had taken that back, because just when they reached the dark doorway, five gunshots pentatrated the air.


	17. Doesn't cry, know's it wont last

**_YAY!_ MY COMPUTER'S FOMATTING WORKS NOW!**

* * *

_It's snowing. _

_I'm sure of it now, _

_my eye's arn't closed anymore_

_I can feel how cold it is for once._

_I can feel my self wanting to be warm_

_I don't want to be cold anymore_

_I'm kinda sad about it_

_I'm kinda scared too_

_I hope you'll be there on the other side_

_Ready to guide me when I can't see_

_I hope you'll catch me when I fall_

_I wish that you'd wipe away the tears_

_Will you?  
Or is that snow I see really just rain?_

_Are my eyes still shut?_

_Is that why it's so dark?_

_Maby my sight is just blurry_

_Because I'm crying._

_Maby it's not rain._

_Maby you are there and it's going to be sunny_

_It's going to be sunny and warm_

_because the ice is finally going to melt._

_I'm going to tell myself that_

_Maby it'll happen just like I dream._

_But then I remember you're not here_

_And Dreams don't come true_

* * *

Three men fell, though none would have died that night.

Neji reloaded his gun, just as a shadowy sillouette appeared in the darkness. His ears were sharpened, his eyes

glowing and his whole body stiffened, tenced. Instinct took over, his mind trapped, ration thrown to the curb.

He could feel Gaara was here, though, and every second now he would wonder why, but more importantly why he ever knew in the first place.

_It's love, _Were Naruto's words. Was he right? No, love didn't exist, it was a stupid cliche, and if it even did, it cirtianly wasn't magic, at least thats what he told himself all his life.

But in those few seconds, he really beleived Naruto's words.

Neji's eyes windened and he whirled around, hair whipping his face. His own cold, ivory eyes locked with Sasuke's captor. The silver moolight illumiated Neji's whole body.

Anyone could have mistook him for a angel.

"You did somthing I can never forgive.." Neji hissed, his gun clutched in his fingers. He aimed, but the man only only smiled. The grin on his expression seemed to peirce Neji's armour. He was finally scared for the first time in his life.

"I dare you.." Neji wasn't hearing correctly...Was he? His pulse quickened, and he shivered, his knees quivering. "What?" He breathed, his voice becoming small and weak, almost like a tiny kitten. The same way he hated it

"I dare you...to shoot." The other's words reached his mind before he had spoken them for the second time.

Neji's arm was shaking violently as he aimed the gun, pointed at the figure infront of him.

Could he really take a life to save Gaara?

But he knew people needed him, and not just the red-haired boy. It was too dark to tell where the other's were, but there were alot more men with guns and weapons than the four of them that had come in, save Gaara. Even though there were a suprising amout of people on his side, he knew, he because the're went more men shooting at him.

Had people come to help them?  
A cold sweat broke across his forehead. _I have to do this. For the people I...love._

He closed his eyes and fired, but he could tell he missed. He didn't open his eyes again and shot three more times. A laugh, a evil, vicious laugh poisoned his blood so it froze. His heart was pounding out of his chest.

_The people I...Love..._

It paralized his whole body as a bone-chilling cry reached his ears. The cry was load and harsh, shrilling. Neji could feel the tingling feeling of blood pouring out of his side, a bullet wound raking across his flesh like demonic claws, infectious the moment it touched.

The peircing cry was growing loader yet.

He was about to call out for it to end, to end that person's agony, but then, as he vision went blurry, he relized with horror that it was his own.

* * *

Naruto knew he was on the floor, and that he was bleeding. Sasuke wasn't anyware in sight, and that worried him. His limbs wouldn't move, to scared to move, and his leg gushing fresh, hot blood. He winced, the pain so unimaginable

_Will I die here?_

The room was crowded, blood was being spilt as he lay there motionless, and they were so obviously out numbered. Sasuke was here, he knew it, even if he didn't know where the hell he was, and he was sure he saw a flash of red that resembled Gaara. Maby it was just his own blood.

_Sasuke, _His mind raced. _I wish I had told you I loved you...before you left..._

Somtimes he wished he had never met Sasuke.

_Will these sights...be my last?_

Then he, nor the raven haired boy, would be dying at this moment.

* * *

Kakashi pulled down his mask so it didn't cover his mouth or eyes. He felt like prey in a forest of predators, predators with gleaming fangs ready to rip into his exposed flesh until his life left him.

His pale, lith figure slipped through the corners as every man was distracted with gunshots or blood.

Or maby it was both.

He needed to fight back somhow. Maby Neji could lend him his gun, but he noted with growing terror that nobody would find anybody until this was all over.

It was just too dark, to chaotic, to keep a strait thought.

Kakashi stopped moving, his eyebrows knitted, trying to comprehend the sight before him.

He could see sombody, now, standing benethe the only light sorce, a moon-lit window, sombody unscathed stading in the moonlight.

He looked like an angel, movments slow, eyes glowing. But then, a horrid gunshot rang in his ears and the angel fell to the ground, streaks of blood slashed the cold air.

It couldn't be Neji...that long, pretty hair, that perfect figure, the angelic appearence...

There was another that rushed to the fallen angel's side. Was this Sasuke he saw?

Kakashi would never know for sure because in a moment he was thrown to the ground, a hand muffling his scream.

* * *

Sakura rushed into the building first, but then a bullet grazed her cheek. It was too late to run away, because as the others had pushed he ruther inside, another bullet rushing passed her.

"Get out!" She screamed, but the door had shut behind her.

Gaara didn't know what was happening. His eyes seemed usless; weather it was pitch darkness or the intence pain in his arm, he would never know.

He couldn' lose consiousness now, not while Neji needed him.

He just knew that, as hard as he tried, to block out the ear-peircing cries and the blood pounding through his veins, he sunk to the flood, slowly and painfully. The pain was unbearable; fire engulfing his shoulderblade.

Suddenly, as a sixth gunshot rang in his ears, there was a feeling in the pit of his stomach that made him want to throw up.

Another gunshot was fiered, and this time his heart pounded as he thought of Neji. Somhow, he knew, this wasn't just a feeling.

Neji had been shot.

* * *

Kakashi's eyes widened with horror as he tried to shake the figure off of him.

"Mfh!"

"Shut up, baka..." He heard Iruka's voice above him and shoved the brunette to the side. They both scrambled over to the cold steel wall and pressed their backs against it.

Kakashi was slightly stunned, that was very uncalled for, but then he saw a gunman in the path where he had been standing moment's before, looking for his target in the dark space.

"Thanks..." Kakashi breathed, pulling his mask over his eye.

Iruka nodded and picked up a gun that skidded over to him on the floor, and handed it to Kakashi, who fumbled with it and then peered at the item slowly.

Iruka pulled another out of his pocket as Kakashi raised and eyebrow.

He saw Iruka stand up and did the same, cocking the gun and then, firing, not missing once.

* * *

Naruto felt his wrists being binded, and he struggled, trying his hardest to get away. There was total silence in the room.

Naruto was shoved in an upright posision, and he glared at the man, the one with thick, raven hair stared down at him, his eyes filled with hatred.

"Listen!" The deep, commanding voice echoed off the walls. "One of these two men will die tonight!"  
Two men? Naruto looked to his side and saw Sasuke, his eyes brimming with tears.

"Sasuke..." Naruto noted his wrists were tied as well, and by his expression he had been tourtured.

"Naruto..." Naruto leaned his whole body forward, twards the raven-haired boy. "I'm so sorry. It's...all my fault...I don't know what to do!"  
Naruto wished, if he had one possible wish at the moment, it would be to grasp Sasuke's hand and told him he loved him.

Tears spilled off his face onto the blood-stained tile.

"Please don't cry..." He kissed Sasuke as lightly as he could, and for the brief time that there lips met, Sasuke never could feel so safe and loved.

"I'm here with you, remember?"

Ino didn't understand what she was seeing. She looked from Shikimaru to the two boys.

He shook his head in disbelief. Lee's mouth was agape. Sakura sighed. It was the saddest kiss she had ever witnessed.

"Sasuke!" The man glared down at him, a feirce grin playing across his fatal expression. "Chose."

Sasuke's blood froze over. He knew what he ment, but he asked again.

"What do you meen?"

Everyone eles in the room seemed to know too, and Sakura found herself crying._ It couldn't be happening._

"You took his life..." Naruto's eyes widened. "So chose. Your life or..." He pointed to Naruto. "His."

"What?"  
"You heard me." He pressed his refile against Sasuke's temple. Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

""Or I kill you both." His heart pounded out of his chest. "I'm giving you one minute."

"No!" Sakura shouted, but Lee covered her mouth. Kakashi couldn't stand it. He pulled his mask over his face to cover his own tears. Iruka choked.

"This is so horrible.." Ino slid down on the tile and burried her face in Shikimaru's arm. She wished she had just stayed home and watched a movie for Kami's sake.

"Fifty."

Sasuke shook his head, the only movment he could possible come up with. Naruto kissed him deeper and Sasuke still was unresponsive.

_Live everymoment to it's fullest._

He conjured the strenth to kiss him back, tears dripping down his reddened cheeks, Naruto tasting the tears. They didn't taste like salt at all. It was the same taste as if he had walked outside and stuck out his tounge. It was rain, but somehow sadder than tears.

"Fourty-Five."

"I wish I had told you more!"  
"What do you meen...Sasuke?" Naruto couldn't bear seeing Sasuke cry. He started to cry, and tried to hold it. It took all of the grown boy's strenth, the hardest thign he had ever done in h is whole life.

"Go ahead. Tell him Sasuke. You have fouty seconds." Sasuke glared at the man, but he could barley tell he was there anymore; the tears were blinding. The moonlight shone in his eyes, making it impossible to see the blonde haird boy.

Naruto was trying to hold them back, too, but found not a point in doing so.

Every instinct in Sasuke's frail body told him not too, not to listen to his heart...his stupid, stupid heart...

Fighting his mind, the tears and the ache in his heart that had been there since that day, he noticed it was tiring; he had been doing it all his life.

_Why can't I be free from my chains?_

Ice. He was always and would be cold.

_Why can't I conjure the strenth to do it by myself?_

It wasn't anyone's fault but his own.

_Why do I need your help to free my heart?_

The shackles were heavy and cold against his exposed skin. His breathing increased, his heart beating out of his chest. He couldn't evn see Naruto. He was pretty sure though, even if he wasn't blinded, he couldn't even see himself anymore.

_I want to melt the ice that keeps me frozen in this time of hate_

He was fighting himself, and he was losing.

_How can I know that It won't kill me?_

Then, suddenly, his heart felt less heavy. He shook his head and wiped his eyes on his shoulder. It was Naruto, and he was looking at him.

_It's okay...because no-one knows._

He looked Naruto in the eyes, and the blonde nodded.

_You just have to feel it._

Sasuke, heart racing, cried:

"I killed him! I killed my brother!"

There were gasps from the backround that reached his ears. He knew that they hated him now, but it wasn't as heartwrenching as the relization that Naruto might too. He didn't have the courage to look him in the eyes.  
It was a big mistake, this was for sure, but he would have done it again if he had the chance. His chest seemed lighter, less sufocating, but his mind was racing with fear of rejection.

"What?" Naruto whispered softly, not fully understanding the situation. Sasuke glared. "You heard me! I killed my brother when I was.." Sasuke choked. "Sixteen!"

The eyes were frozen on Sasuke and he could feel the heated gazes seering into his flesh. But he didn't care. They were melting the ice. The ice that kept him cold his whole life.

"Why..." Naruto stared at him, but Sasuke could tell the eyes were the same; they didn't pity him and they didn't hate him. They were just Naruto's; nothing had changed.

"He killed my parents!" He sobbed. "Itachi killed my parents and everyone good in my life!"

The man standing infront of the two mouthed the words 'thirty five'.

"It haunts me every day of my fucking life!"

Thirty.

"I wanted to be loved for once for who I was! Not the monster I had become!

Twenty five.

"He tried to kill me so I took a gun and shot him!"

Twenty.

"Hate me now, Naruto? Hate me everyone! I'm going to be all alone again!"

"No, Sasuke, I love you just the same..." Naruto said slowly after a moment's thought. Sasuke didn't understand. He killed him, killed his own brother in cold blood and Naruto loved him still?

"We love you Sasuke!" Sakura shouted, tears falling of her face. Lee nodded with Ino. Shikimaru did after a while.

"We love you!" Ino shouted. "You'll never be alone when you have us!"

Sasuke cried.

He cried harder than he had ever cried in his entire life. He let out all the tears he had ever felt, the tears from killing his brother, his parent's death, he cried for unrequited love and he cried for his and Naruto's love. He choked out the tears for his friends, all of them loving him so much, and he cried for Iruka.

He sobbed for Kakashi and he cried for all the tears he had ever wanted to cry.

He licked the tears off his cheek.

They were salty now.

They were warm. The ice had finally melted.

"Ten seconds!" He shouted. "Nine!"

His voice rang through the building and rocketed off the wall.

_You'll never be alone when you have us!_

"Eight!"

"Sasuke let me die!" Naruto shouted, his voice load, clear, and filled with sorrow. "You have to live! You can't die because I would hate myself for the rest of my life!"

"No, Naruto! You don't understand! I deserve to die for what I did!"  
"No you don't! You have friends and you can love! You can love but I can't love without you! If you're gone I'll have nobody left to love!"

"Naruto..." Sasuke kissed him one last time. Naruto looked at him, his eyes shinning brighter than he had ever seen them.

"Sasuke please just don't cry.."

"Three!"

Neji was only consious to hear the last eight seconds.

He, weakly, with vision shifting, reached out for his gun and fired four more shots. He winced as he felt the blood gushing out of his side where the flesh was torn, the pain throbbing through his body.

Then, feeling as though he couldn't go on any longer, his eyes closed. He didn't open them again.

Sasuke stood up when he saw the man fall, his gun firing four shots up at the warehouse celing, then skidding across the floor. Sakura pushed Lee away and ran over to Sasuke and undid his bindings while shots rang out from every corner of the room.

"You bastards, you shot him!" Yelled the voice of a man who was helping his leader. Choas errupted as shots were fiered and people's terrorized screams filled the space.

Sasuke knew Naruto was fine, he didn't need to know, after all, but focused more on where the shots had come from. His ebony eyes scanned the room until they fell opon saw Neji lying on the ground, not moving, not blinking. Was he even breathing?

Was he even alive?

He had to be...

Sasuke knew it was coming; he knew from the very second he arrived in Konoha, he knew since the day he was born, people who he loved would get hurt because of him. Thats why he had no friends, no family, no love until he came back to Konoha a month ago.

Kami, had it been so little time?

But never knew sombody might die. Never knew a life would be taken because of him.

He fell to the floor and tried his best not to choke as he layed his arms over Neji's thin frame. The relization hit him like a bullet to the head. His movments were uncontrolled by his mind. He moved by his heart.

_It was all my fault again, all my fault...nobody will ever love me again._

"Neji!" He cried, his voice rough and horse. "Please answer me!" The tears were coming now, like a river. But Sasuke knew it was really more the rain.

_Mother and father...it was raining when you died...wasn't it...?_

"Please!" He pulled of the Hyuuga's jaket and wiped the tears off his eyes.

_I'm sure, with regret, I had forgotten about you_.

"Too many!" He sobbed, half yelling. Silence fell apon the room as the screams of sorrow echoed across the walls.

"Oh, Sasuke...I'm so, so, so sorry." Sakura watched the anguish seep through his body, and it caught her by suprise. She turned to Lee and burried her head in his shoulder.

_I hope I'll never forget you now. Never until I die._

"Too many people will miss you!" He was unaware of the bullets that had stopped flying past him, and he uncurled Neji's fingers and took his cold metal rifle.

_Was it this that took you're life? A gun?_

_Or was it...me?_

"What If I told you _I'll _miss you, Neji!" The Hyuuga's brunette hair fell over Sasuke's hands, but he could barley see it through his tears.

"What about Gaara?"

Time stopped around him. Neji. It was his parents that time. His friends. His brother. And now Neji.

"Please..._please..._wake up!" Sasuke was sobbing too hard and too emotionly to know if his heart had stopped beating.

"What If I told you I loved you?" Sasuke's tear's fell over the motionless body. He thought for a moment, and then

leaned to down to brush his lips against Neji's, but Neji's eyes remained closed.

**:IMPORTANT:**

**BEFORE YOU GO ON REVEIW THIS CHAPPIE!**

**OMG IS NEJI REALLY DEAD? WOULD I DO THAT? I haven't updateded in a month, but I have been checking those reveiws like 10 times a day. UGH you people need to reveiw more **

**NEway, I have SO many chapters just WAITING to be updated...like 13, lol! I started the sequel and there are ALOT of chapters...or did I? Stay posted and be a good REVEIWER so I will give you those chappies to read **

**Thanks, BankotsuChick**


	18. Times too slow for a man too fast

**OKAY, So if you are reading this chapter, you reveiwed that last one right? YOU BETTER HAVE (crazed look in eyes)**

* * *

"Get out!"  
"Everybody out!"

"There's too many!" Lee had picked up a gun and was back-to-back with Shikimaru, firing warning shots to get the hell out. Ino did the same, pressed against the wall in a corner so nobody would be able to get behind her.

Gaara appeared out of the darkness and rushed over to Neji.

Men in black, making them almost invisible, rushed twards a sorce of fresh air that poured through a open door in the back where Sakura had entered. She was standing all alone, in the courner, tears flowing freely down her face, no expression.

Lee put his hand on her shoulder, and she leaned in to cry. He ran his fingers through her pink hair and wiped the blood off her forehead.

Ino and Shikimaru were huddled outside, as the choas died down, sitting on the pavement.

Naruto got up, limping, the room emptying slowly.

"Is he..." Gaara whispered, grabbing Neji's hand in his own. It was cold, colder than anything Gaara had felt before.

"Please no..." He turned to Sasuke with pleading eyes.

Sasuke's hair was hanging in his face. He shook his head, a simple, obviouse, 'I don't know."

Sasuke was pretty sure he was imagining when he saw Gaara's bright green eyes well with tears.  
"Please no!"

They ran down his hot cheeks onto Neji's face.

"Please don't die! Remember what I told you, Neji?"  
Sasuke stood up and rushed into Naruto's arms, stumbling as he walking. He collasped half way, crying.

"He saved our life and I couldn't save his! He saved us all!"  
Naruto cried to, it was the worst sound, the most heartwrenching sound they could have ever heard.

He looked over at Gaara.

"I told you that my heart belongs to you!" He shouted, as if he wanted the whole world to know. Everybody looked at him, everybody pittied him, but he didn't care.

"I told you that my heart was yours and if you die...I die!" Temari rushed into the warehouse.

"Gaara I needed my car so I..." Her eyes fell opon her brother. Kankurro peered in. He had never seen Gaara cry before. He exchanged confused glances with Temari and she shrugged, both not undestanding the full extent of this situation.

"Please, I don't want to die, Neji! I love you so much I won't be able to live anymore or love anyone eles!"  
Sakura couldn't stand the sobs and the tears.

Naruto sat by his side with Sasuke, grabbing Neji's other hand.

_Everyone needs some one when they fall._

He unbottoned Neji's jaket and then his shirt.

_I'll always help you because I know he's presiouse to you. _

"What are you doing..." Gaara growled, his voice deep and menecing. "Don't even touch him!" He hissed.

_And your preciouse to me..._

Gaara burried his head in Sasuke's arm. The shorter, raven haired man sighed and cried with him.

Naruto took off his own t-shirt and pressed it against Neji's open wound to stop the bleeding.

"What the hell!" Gaara snapped. Sasuke shook his head to Gaara, and the red-haired boy instinctivly closed his mouth. Naruto had ignored him, and pressed his head against Neji's chest.

At first he heard nothing, but then the fainstest sound possible.

He wasn't even sure he had heard anything, but he couldn't be over-careful.

"Help me!" Naruto yelled, his voice echoing off the walls. "Neji is still alive!"

* * *

_Your wounds are bleeding_

_Like tears running off my face_

_Your bleeding to death_

_It kills me to watch too_

_Watch when I can't do anything_

_You can't do anything either_

_It makes me want to cry to see you like this_

_Your probably hate it_

_The looks of pity that surround you_

_You were so proud_

_Your eyes were so fiery_

_If you had the strenth I know you_

_I know you would push us all away_

_Because you would say you wouldn't need _

_Anyone's help._

_But you need it...  
You need it._

_I made that mistake_

_It's hard to say that I did_

_But its true, so I know how you feel_

_You think your all alone and that you can_

_Take care of yourself_

_But your not alone anymore,_

_Now that you have us_

_So you'll never be alone again._

_So maby you'll let your guard down?_

_Maby you'll let us help you now?_

_Even though it's not like you have a choice anymore._

* * *

Sasuke fell asleep, he wasn't sure when or how or even where, but he rememberd vaugly that he wasn't in a hard, cold warehouse. And he felt for the first time in his life warm.

His head was throbbing, and his vision was shifting. His leg's were somewhat numb and his heart was unbearably heavy.

He didn't bother trying to sit up, the harsh light blinding his eyes, making him squint.

His thoughts started to clear, and he went over the events that had just happened.

He was afraid, so, so, afraid but Naruto came and...he helped...he helped and now Sasuke was safe.

But was that really how it happened?

Was everything really okay?  
The relization was like a dagger to the heart.

It was Neji.  
He was dead.

Or was he?  
Sasuke sat up, and whirled around, his eyes wide and pannicked. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned, half-expecting it to be Naruto, but frowned as he noticed it was a nurse with a sympathetic look on her face.

She opened her mouth to say somthing, slowly, but Sasuke shook his head.

"Don't say it...Don't say it..." She nodded. "It's...okay...sir."

Sasuke grabbed her by the shoulders, though she was taller, and looked her strait in the eyes, a peircing glare that looked into her soul.

"Tell me he's not dead!"

She looked suprised, her blonde hair standing on edge, but then he noticed her name tag. It read: Yuka Mizuki: Pysciatric Ward.

Damn, Sasuke sighed. She had probably had been dealing with this all day.

"I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid I don't know..."

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke turned to see Kiba. The nurse walked away, looking about once.  
"Kiba, your back!" He nodded and scanned his eyes over Sasuke's body.  
"You look like hell." Sasuke sighed. He would be getting this all day and he knew it. He peered at his watch. It was 3:40 in the morning.

"Why are you here now?" Sasuke asked, puzzled. "It's really early." Kiba nodded.

"Wake-up call from Hinata. She was crying alot. I came down as soon as I could."

Sasuke hadn't even relizated Hinata was Neji's cousin, and they were unseperable. Kiba's eyes shinned concern for her. They had been close for a long time.

"..so..." Kiba sighed and shifted his footing. "I Heard from _somebody_-" And by _somebody _Sasuke knew he ment Naruto-"...that you...were..ummm..."

Sasuke sighed, not really consentrating on what he was saying.

"..that you are going out...with Naruto..." Sasuke blushed, and looked at his scuffed shoes.

"...y-yea..."

But then he remembered why he was here in the first place.

"Do you know where the _fuck_ Neji is?" Kiba raised an eyebrow.

"I don't."

He looked Sasuke directly in the eyes. Sasuke sighed. Kiba walked over, his eyes tiered yet resiliant. He put a arm around Sasuke's slim shoulders.

"Don't get your hopes up, man."

* * *

Gaara didn't fall asleep though fatuige nagged at his body.

Neji's heartbeat was faint, he knew it too, though he wasn't allowd to see him yet, and he was getting sick of all the tears and kind words.

He just wanted to push them all away. He sighed.

He only wish he could lock eyes with Neji, one last time, feel his kiss on his lips, feel his hand in his hand and tell him how much he loved him.

Sasuke ran through the halls his heart beating out of his chest.

He hated the strange looks people were glaring as he rushed passed him, but he didn't care.

_Neji...I'm so sorry..._

He started to cry again, but he closed him eyes as he ran. It was like if he had stood outside in the freezing rain.

Suddenly, as if awkening him, he colided with someone and fell falt on the floor.

"Sorry..." He whispered, rubbing the top of his head and wincing. "I didn't meen too..."

"S'kay.." The other man said back, getting up and sticking out a hand. Sasuke peered up through his raven-haired bangs.

"Naruto!" He exclaimed, his heart racing. "You're okay!" He was close to hugging Naruto but he stopped short, noticing his arm up in a sling.

_It was the moonlight I'm sure_

Tears rushed to his eyes. Naruto tentivly reached out a finger to wipe them off his cheek.

"Why the hell are you crying now?" Naruto asked, puzzled. "There really is no need you know."

"Because it's _my _fault you're like that, Naru-chan!"

_It was that who blinded me, _

He put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, and Naruto tried to give him a hug, but Sasuke shook him off.

"Sorry." Naruto whispered. "Bad time?"

_But when the night leaves us_

"It's okay." Sasuke brushed off his jaket. "Can you tell me where the hell Neji is?"  
Naruto nodded and pointed down the hall.

_I can see again_

"There not telling me anything. I tried to beat some sence into one of them, but I almost was asked to leave.."

Sasuke laughed slightly.

_I can see everything I did and I wish now_

"Do you think...Naruto..." Sasuke adverted his eyes. Naruto knew immidiatly what he was trying to say. He sighed, deeply and thoughtfully. Finally, he spoke.

_I would be dark forever_  
"...Sasuke, nobody knows. Right now...it's all up to Neji."

"Naruto...I miss him..."

_And I'd never have to see the truth_

"I know you do..." He pulled Sasuke into a hug. "Believe me..." He said quietly so Sasuke could barley hear. "I do too."

_See that it's all my fault_

Flashes of the fight that had gone on earlier rushed through Sasuke's mind.

_He was an Angel...It was an Angel and now I'm dead..._

Sasuke kissed Naruto a short, sweet goodbye and headed down the hall, leaving Naruto staring at him behind.

_No...It wasn't an angel..It was just him_

_And I'm really alive._

_Even if I somtimes wish I wasn't._

Sasuke kept runnning until he saw a familliar face.

"Gaara!" Sasuke breathed as he stopped runnning and stood infront of him. Gaara gave him a second glance, and sat down on the bench across from the door, one of his hands balled up into a fist, the other supporting his chin.

"Gaara..." He said, sitting down beside him. "I know you get this alot...but..."  
"Save your pity, Sasuke. I don't need it."

"I'm guessing..." He started. "That they havn't let you see him. They havn't even told you if he's.." Sasuke stopped talking as Gaara's emrald eyes bore into his.

He looked away.  
"So, Sasuke...what you said...was it true..?" He asked quietly. "That you really did...that?" Sasuke's heart felt weighed down for so long after keeping it a secret that it was suprising to feel the lightness.

He nodded.

"It's not like I'm proud of it, Gaara. But Somtimes..." Gaara looked at him from the side. "You have to own up to what you did..." He finished for him. Sasuke didn't reply.

"And it was true that..._you're _in _love_ with _Neji_?" Gaara was the one who didn't reply now. But Sasuke saw the hint of a blush. He smirked.

"I knew it. It's just a little suprising." Gaara stared at him and lifted up his head. "What do you meen?"  
"You're always so..." He stopped. He didn't need to finish. All he said was,

"Neji's a lucky guy."

Gaara smiled slightly.

"I Hope so, Sasuke. I really do."

After while of silence, a nurse came out of the room wearing a very solemn expression.

Sasuke gripped Gaara's hand. Gaara seemed shocked, by didn't pull away.

"I-I..." She started, his voice starting to become weak. Gaara's stomach lurched. "I don't know how to...tell you this..Sir..."

Sasuke felt Gaara's hand tence. He stood up and pushed her aside.

"You can't go in there, Sir!" She yelled and tried to pull Gaara back but he shoved her off.

His eyes were wide as he made his way through a few doctors crowding around Neji.

"Oh...Neji..."

He looked up at Sasuke who nodded and stepped back to the door. There was complete silence except for very faint and scarse beeping sound. But Gaara didn't care.

Neji's eyes's were closed, but his face was the opposite of peaceful.

His eyebrows were knitted and he was bitting his lower lip. His brunette hair was tussled and matted; the way Gaara had never seen it before. He took Neji's hand in his own and closed his eyes.

Sasuke motioned for the rest of the hostipal staff to leave.

"Your going to be...okay...I promise.." Gaara whispered, his voice quite. Naruto appeared in the doorway and it took a moment for him to relize what was going on.

Neji was dying.

* * *

**Heheheheee...I know that one was a TOTAL filler, but I just couldn't help it. I had to cut it off there cuz im pissed at the lack of reveiws Just a little taste of what to come for those good readers who reveiw! **

**By the way...what comes next is totally unexpected! So many plot twists it'll make your head spin! Guess what happens------**

**hehe you'll have to stay posted...**

**BankotsuChick**


	19. Maby if instead of walking, you'd dance

**IF YOU DID NOT REVIEW LAST CHAPTERS DON'T READ THIS**

** I'm seriouse guys...REVEIW**

**

* * *

**

**This is where the REAL action starts...! HUGE changes! I was gunna make Neji die and cut the fic off there and make what comes next the sequel, but...hmm..nah, I'll keep this one going **

**BankotsuChick**

**(oh yea, in this chappie, you discover if Neji dies)**

* * *

Naruto took Sauske's hand and walked up to Neji, he's eyes welling with tears. 

"It's not fair..." Sasuke whispered. "He never did anything wrong..." Sasuke pulled away from Naruto and ran to his other side.

"Neji!" He cried. "Please wake..up..." Hinata ran to his side as soon as she appeared in the doorway, her face contorted with sorrow.

Naruto put his arm around her slim shoulders.

Gaara's mind was panicking. What could he do? He could let Neji die infront of him...never.

He stood up, still holding the Hyuuga's hand, and did the only thing he could do.

He placed the softest, sweetest kiss on Neji's lips. His hot, fresh, tears dripped onto Neji's face.

Just the sight of Gaara reduced to tears made Sasuke want to cry too.

* * *

Gaara's bright green eyes were fixacted on Neji's unopened one's for a moment, and then he sighed.  
Naruto sighed too, but grabbed Sasuke's hand and started to leave, when Sasuke stopped him. 

"What is it, Sasuke?" Naruto said, but he had already seen. Neji's eyes had fluttered open.

"Neji!" Sasuke breathed, rushing over to his side, but stopped as Gaara locked eyes with him. Sasuke stepped back and returned to Naruto. They both decided it was best to leave the two alone.

"You worried me, you stupid asshole..." Gaara whispered, hand cuppin he other's face. Neji's breathing became more rapid.

"I-I..." He stuttered. "C-could s-say...the..." Cough. "Same thing."

_

* * *

_

_"Can you believe it?"  
"I know; it's a miricle. I don't know how he pulled through."_

* * *

"You think he'll be okay, Naruto?" Sasuke said as he sat back down. The doctors and nurses were completely stunned. 

Naruto smiled and looked at Gaara's sillouette through the tinted glass window and then Neji's.

"He'll be fine. Don't worry, Sasuke."

* * *

Sasuke couldn't go to sleep that night. 

Neji was still vaugly on his mind, and he sat up, wrapped his arms around his knees and put his chin on his hands and gazed at Naruto sleeping so peacefully.

"I wish I was that innocent..."

He mumbled, and found himself cold. He never used to be cold. It was slightly irritating. He was still having thoughts about what had happened, and it was going to be light in about two hours, so he got up and curled up on the couch in the next room and flipped on the T.V.

As usuall, he really didn't consentrate on what he was watching, but rather on why Naruto, Gaara, and Neji had even got shot in the first place.

It was all his fault, and as much as he hated to admitt it, his mind was made up. There was no way around it.

The three of them came after him in the first place because they _loved _him.

It was guilt, the nagging feeling that if he wasn't there that they wouldn't have gotten hurt.

Neji survived, they all had, but what about next time?

Would somone like Sakura or Shikimaru die next?

What about Gaara or Kakashi? Kakashi and Iruka were kidnapped in the first place because of him.

Would it be...Naruto next time?

_I couldn't live with myself..._

How could he?

Naruto dying and it being his fault?

He slid off the couch and wondered back into the bedroom, slipping under the thick layer of covers.

He felt Naruto's warm arm around his shoulders and closed his eyes in a mock-sleep as a single tear dripped down his fair face.

He was going to have to leave him.

* * *

It had been a few days now, and Neji still hated being looked at like some science exparement. People were always poking and prodding him with somthing, and if not, they'd walk past him and take notes on a clipboard. It drove him insane. 

Oh sure, he'd dish out some nasty looks, a few 'fuck off and die's and then maby a assault of some kind, but they never left him alone.

The only thing that kept his mind strait these days was Gaara.

"You're late, Gaara. What kept you?" He growled, arms crossed defiantly. "You can't begin to understand the supreme annoyence of these people."  
Gaara smiled slightly and dropped a box on his lap. Neji peered at the lable.

"Chocolate?"  
The red-haired boy nodded.

"Finally!"

Gaara got the hint from Hinata that not only was Neji a closet chocoholic, but a hater of hospital food of any kind.

"All this fucked-up shit that's going on is got on my last nerves..." He mumbled, face full, and still stuffing more in his mouth.

"Being woken up in the middle of the night only to get told that you need more rest...or you won't pull through..."

Gaara took a few steps over to Neji, took the clipboard off his table, looked at it for a moment, and then headed for the door.

Neji crossed his arms and pouted.

"Why the hell are you leaving so early?" Neji asked, in a somewhat whiny tone.

"I'm going to meet Naruto for lunch, Sasuke too." Gaara replied casually.

"It get's kinda boring here. I swear I'm about to get up and walk awa-"

Gaara was at his side immidiatly, titlting his chin up and looking him in the eyes.

"You won't do anything of the sort." Neji opened his mouth to protest, but found his gaze too penitrating. He glared for a moment and then looked away angered by the way the red-haired boy could make him back down.

"You won't..." He continued. "You have to stay here and get better. And please," He said as he kissed him on the forehead. "Don't kill anyone."

Neji growled, because the moment Gaara closed the door a very perky nurse, with somthing sharp and a clipboard, entered the room.

Gaara sighed as closed the door.

_Three..._

_Two.._

_One._

"Ow, you fucking bitch!" There was a dull thud and then a few seconds later, the nurse left the room, shaking her head and sighing.

Gaara grinned and whipped open his cell phone, speed dialing Naruto.

* * *

It was snowing, the light on the city dying to embers beneth swollen clouds. 

The streets were empty, no soul on the street, the blanket of snow seeming to drown out all the noises and sounds with a chilly, numbing effect.

It was silent.

There was a lone figure though, standing totally alone, trailing a hot crimson path in his wake.

The whole world seemed to stop for him.

A fierce grin was plastered on his face, though you could not really be sure. Though, ironicly, there was no string of joy in his fatal expression.

Smiles and frowns looked the same after so many tears.

As he walked, he cast no shadow.

Crystaline dropplets of icey snow clug to the man and all the structures around him, leaving him sodden.

A gun was clentched in his finger's, the pointed black nail's digging into his palm, the harsh metal clinking against his dagger.

The dagger was aged, it was chipped and adorn many, many crimson stains. It was somwhat like it's owner's face; young but sorrowful, and flesh wounds could only run so deep until they hit the soul.

A thick canopy of weeping trees sheilded him from the clouds and from becoming increasingly wet.

_I am just a man waiting in the shadows._

The blade clinked against the harsh steel of the gun. _Clink, Clink._

Nothing was worn on his head, nothing covering his ears nor eyes but tussled chunks of raven-colored hair that fell over his pale face.

It was almost like he didn't want to be seen...Or he didn't want to see the world.

_Like a snake...waiting to strike._

The hair that swayed behind him moved like a metronome to the swaying of the riflel in his hand.

That and the blade gave off a manecing aura.

Two of his canine teeth slid over his full lips; they were like wolves fangs; bloody, devious, pointed like stelagmites itching for flesh.

_I hide until I taste blood in the air._

There was but one sound that penitrated the silence of the day, the constant beating of the own man's heart.

Even if his eyes had been visible, they betrayed no emotion.

The feelings of how he hated himself, hated everone around him. The ever-present tick was just a reminder.

But nobody would ever know this because of the ever-resent grin opon his face.

_Taste the blood of my vitim._

"Sasuke..." He whispered, glaring at his reflection in a puddle of melted ice. The thick scars under each of his two eyes seemed to mock him.

"I can't wait..." He clutched his wounded arm and winced slightly. "To ...repay..you for what you...gave me..."

A sensation danced down his spine as if a snake, like fingers moving a marrionette.

"My aniki, you thought I was dead, didn't you?"

_Then I go in for the kill._

Then the man concealed his knife in his pocket and continued twards the city he knew as Konoha.

* * *

_The first time I looked in the mirror_

_I was shocked_

_I hope I don't look that way to you_

* * *

"When are we suppose to go to Gaara's again, Naruto?" 

Naruto threw him a light colored peice of paper for scrawled font on the back into Sasuke's lap. He picked it up, read it and nodded.

It was 10:14 and Gaara, being a slightly timley, wanted them to be there at noon, no sooner no later.

It gave Naruto two hours to get what he needed done.

Sasuke lazed on the couch, not sure if leaving Naruto was the best thing to do, even though it may be the safest.

_I could never forgive my self.._

It would be hard, sure, and Naruto would probably never know how much Sasuke really loved him, and to say Sasuke didn't care would be a outright lie, but getting Naruto shot dead would be worse than breaking his heart.

Hearts will heal.

Death is forever.

The heat of the furnace blasted Sasuke in the face, giving his whole body a numbing sensation.

He switched on the televison, only to have it turn off of second later. He glanced at the romote in curiosity, then to the person standing by the T.V cabinet.

"...Naruto...?..." He mumbled, looking in his lap. "What are you doing?"  
Naruto sighed, sitting beside Sasuke.

"...Sasuke I need to ask you somthing..." Sasuke hated looking in the eyes of the person he would break the heart of.

"I don't feel like talking..." Sasuke stood up, but Naruto grabbed his hand and looked at him closley in eyes. Sasuke looked away.

"What the hell is wrong with you?'

"Nothing."

"...you know, somtimes I wonder why you even bother with that excuse."

He kissed him lightly, or tried too, but Sasuke pulled away. Naruto frowned, but soon was angered.

"Why are you even bothering to stay with me anymore?" He growled, but found some satisfaction as the raven-haired looked up at him in suprise.

"Naruto I-"  
"I'm serious, Sasuke...Are you even in love with me anymore?"

Sweatdrop.

He would, yes. He would show him how much he loved him for the very last time.

Sasuke's hands were quivering slightly as he kissed the blonde, tentivly at first but then much rougher, almost bruising, taking the other one by suprise, the raven-haired bishi's thin fram hanging over the more masculine one's. His lips were chaped, very boyish, as Sasuke remembered them to be, irresistable. It was like a joke, the smaller one over him, so the blonde took a moment to react.

But it only took a moment for the other to return the kiss harder yet. Sasuke let the blonde take over, but not before whispering somthing in his ear, making the other shiver.

"...why the couch..."

Sasuke asked, though he got no responce.

The raven-haired rolled his eyes, whimpering slightly, skilled fingers, slipping off the Uchiha's sweatshirt, then t-shirt.

The raven haired's pale skin, exposed, fingered trailing down his chest. The heat wasn't unbearable; it was hot yes but desirable. He wanted it, he lusted for it. There eyes met, the midnight blue of Naruto's shinning through the blackness of Sasuke's eyes. It was incredibly overpowering, sligthly akward and it made Sasuke feel unnerved.

It was the uke part, surely. It felt like he had been screwed his whole life by all the guys in his life, thought never so..._literally _than now

It felt right, felt natrual to let the other take over, but it was the same, it was the same always. Visions of Itachi flashed through his mind, though he didn't exactly know why, as the silky belt he used to hold up his loose shorts binded his wrists, painfully, so tight he knew he wouldn't be able to slip out of it.

He panicked sligthly, but took a breath, letting it out in a sigh. It was his part. He was to submit. He had to. Naruto wouldn't love him, as Itachi would say.

_Thats why. _

He waited to unbottton the other's shirt, slowly, pulling down the jeans until they rode on the blonde's slim hips. Sasuke noted, as the last remaining cloth was removed, his body exposed, he wasn't afraid.

_Thats why I think of him._

He was just sad.

* * *

_They say he will always be alone_

_They say he's the kind of person_

_Who will wander theese streets at night_

_Serching for the things he will never have_

_Things like happiness._

_They say it's because he's mean_

_Some say it's because he's angry at the world_

_Those all may be true..._

_But is it really possible_

_That somone's so cold as to..._

_Not love anything?_

_That is why everyone's in dinial_

_They don't believe their eyes_

_That lone boy who was all by himself_

_Fell in Love_

* * *

Gaara stepped reluctantly out of his car, bracing himself for the cold. 

He had about half an hour until the two, the Uchiha and Uzimaki arrived for lunch. They had, anyway, a half hour before Gaara started getting angry about time.

He fiddled with the lock and the key, finally angerd enough to thrust the key into the hole and turning it forcefully.

He shut the door quickly behind him, his green eyes ceasing to open, back agaisnt the closed door, sliding down to the floor.

_"Neji..." _He whispered. "_I miss you so much..."_

* * *

Sasuke slipped off the couch, wincing as he bent over to sntach up his pants, t-shit and sweatshirt. 

He was unbelievably sore; the pain was incredible, but some how his body wasn't aching as much as his heart.

He slipped out of the room, slinking into the bathroom where he grabbed a slick comb off the sink and ran it through his hair, standing infront of the mirror, but being careful not to look at his own reflection.

He sighed when he was done, and moved back to the living room, grabbing his few posestions.

He gazed down at Naruto, sighing again as he knelt by the couch.

Sasuke was carful, though, not to wake his sleeping lover.

He could feel Naruto's breath on his face, the moist heat bringing tears to his eyes, as he held the one he loved's hand for the very last time.

_"I love you just the same, no matter what."_

Sasuke wished he could look into his eyes and tell him he loved him back.

_"Please trust me, I want the best for you..."_

He brushed back the hair from his eyes, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

_"You know I know.."_

Silent tears, like whispers of the breeze on the cool winter air, streamed down his face.

_"I won't love anyone eles."_

He shut his eyes, drinking in the comforting smell.

_"I can't live without you...my koiishi."_

He sighed, wiped his eyes, and reluctantly let go of his blonde lover's hand.

"But you'll have to..go on...for me.."

There had been tears...There had been love...There had been hate and deception...There had been trust and betrayal...and now it was all over.

Sasuke turned off the ringer of the phone on the desk, knowing full well Gaara would have his ass if he could for not showing up or answering the phone. He smiled grimly at the thought of Gaara and what he would be leaving behind. This was his old life though. Even though, this time, he wouldn't even have Kakashi.

He wanted to say goodbye to Kakashi, but it would be too hard. Neji and Sakura as well.

Finally, placing a small kiss on the other's full lips, he gave one last parting glance and headed out the door, shutting it lightly. This would be the coldest night of Sasuke's life.

* * *

**Can you believe Itachi's alive and back? And Sasuke's leaving Naruto? It only gets better!**

**REVEIW**


	20. Giving life the slightest chance

Itachi Uchiha stood vacantly across the Unoichi Street Apartment Complex, watching as the sun's slillouettes cast there ghostly shadows across the still-standing figures on the street.

"Sasuke..." He breathed. "I know your here..." There was only one movment on the street, a lone, rusty, red car that parked about a block down.

There was but one lone figure, a man Itachi could tell was saddened by somthing that he would never know about, but as Itachi slunk behind the nearest allyway, and squinted his eyes slightly, his heart beat quickened.

"...brother..."

His expression of shock turned to one of elation.

_The snake is ready to strike..._

* * *

Neji awoke, cold sweat beading on his pale forehead, stares falling opon him as he shook the sleep clinging to his fatigued body. Gaara wasn't here anymore.

His eyes widened, his vizon blurred, and as he rubbed his eyes he noted why he was afraid in the first place.

He placed a hand over his collerbone, trying to control his rapid breathing.

Placing his trembling hand over to the white desk beside him and picked up a brush, rythmically running the bristles through his thick brunette hair.

_Sasuke's expression went pale, as hot breath of the man inches away from him tickled his cold face._

_His heart was beating out of his chest as his blood pounded through his veins. He moved backwards, Naruto no where in sight._

_...Kami...Help me...K-kami...help me...Naruto.._

_The street was empty, the only sound was the beating of his heart, that of his sibling's not even detectable. There was no joy in the man's eyes, or on his whole face, though not a finger trembled._

_He was totally emotionless. Just like he was when he had killed their Uchiha clan._

_The sky seemed to weep for the last Uchiha soul; the older brother's was lost ago to corruption._

_Rain dripped off the perfect tip of Sasuke's nose, entwining with his tears of hate._

_"Sasuke...This is it...after us there will be no soul left for the Uchiha's. None."_

_"You'll still be left, Itachi..."_

_Not a twinge in his fingers like spider legs, not a curve of his lip indecating a smile nor frown._

_"I'm going to kill my self next."_

_Sasuke tenced his fists._

_"We're the same Uchiha, Sasuke... The same down to to the blood in our veins that feuls our existance...you here that, Sasuke! We're the same fucking man!"_

_Sasuke didn't move._

_"Were the same man who walks alone at night in the rain and the snow!" Itachi hissed. "We're both cold!"_

_"Don't you have anyone to live for, Itachi?" The younger Uchiha spat._

_His frail voice boomed off the brick aley, seeming to trap Itachi, sending the message to the bone. Sasuke had a lover. He had friends. Itachi had nothing._

_"Don't you have a life ahead of you?" He cried. "D-don't you, my...Aniki?"_

_Itachi smirked._

_"Who needs...friends...lovers...brothers...for hell!"_

_Sasuke smirked back._

_"Your the weakest man I have ever met."_

_Itachi's lips dipped downwards._

_"You were like that, Sasuke? We you not? You cannot deny it, brother you know the truth!" He barked, the strands of his hair plastered to his thin face, shapping the scars under his eyes._

_Sasuke didn't flinch as Itachi whipped out a loaded gun adn pressed it to his temple._

_"Yes...but...I have changed."_

_Itachi's hair covered his expression in shame._

_"You will never change, Itachi! And I'm not cold anymore, brother! Thats why where so differnent!"_

_  
Itachi hissed one last in audible phrase as he pulled the trigger._

_Yet before doing so, few last words escaped Sasuke's lips. _

_"I love you, Naruto...I'm sorry..."_

"Gaara!" His voice barley echoed off the small hostpital room. "You're here! I need to tell yo-" He was silence by a quick kiss, but Neji pushed him away.

"This is serious!" He seethed. "Sasuke's left Naruto and he's going to die! Sombody's after him and-" Another kiss, this one Neji couldn't pull away from, but after a few seconds he pushed the red-haired boy again.

"Stop it, Gaara-kun!"  
Gaara rolled his eyes.

"How do you know this, my love? It was probably just a dream, you know." Neji looked at his closley, his ivory eyes buring into Gaara's green ones. He gulped.

"Fine. I'll call him. Just to prove you're wrong, though, Neji..." He flipped open his brand new Razr cell phone and speed-dialed Naruto

* * *

Sometime later, perhaps 5 minutes, perhaps 50, Naruto Uzimaki awoke from a deep sleep, hrolling over on his side and expecting to see his lover's face, but insteed was met with nothing more than a couch cousion.

He glanced at the alarm clock at on the table where the phone was placed to see if anyone had called. The time was outrageously close to the time Gaara wanted them there, though for some reason Naruto didn't care about it. Sasuke was troubling him.

Just then, his red and silver Motarola cell vibrated in his hand. He flipped it open and pressed send.

"Eh...Gaara...what's..up?" He grumbled, putting a hand to his throbbing temple. He was exhaused. His eyes dropped and he shook his head to stay awake.

"Hey..." Gaara said with his normal cool tone. "...Is Sasuke...with you?" The name felt like a stab in his heart.

He got up, staggering, more tired than sore, and looked in the kitchen, Gaara waiting patiently on the line. Naruto could here the red-haired's breathing over the line and it was making him more and more anxious by the second.

"...I take that as a...no..." Gaara said, his calm voice slightly shaky. "...Naruto I have to tell you somthing...It's really important...but I don't know how you'll take it..."

"You can tell me...anything if it's about Sasuke!" He breathed, louder than it should have been.

"Naruto...hey! What's up!" He heard Neji over the line and rolled his eyes, hearing Gaara tell Neji lovingly to shut the hell up. Neji was acting strange; or maby it was just cooped up in a hostpital room for a week.

"Gaara can you just tell me?"  
Gaara though for a moment.

"I'll put Neji on the line...I guess...He'll be able to tell you easier than I can..." He heard the phone being passed to the other person in the room.

"What happened to him! Neji?" Neji was silent. "Naruto...Sasuke's in danger...I really fear that it's not good...at all...he's left you, Naruto. I'm not sure why, or how, but I'm sure you would. After all, your his lover."

Naruto was about to protest in embarrassment to the 'lover' comment, but didn't. It was true...

"What?...Leaving me...?"

"Hey Naruto...why arn't you denying Sasuke being your lover?" Gaara said slyly. Neji smirked over the line.

"So you and Sasuke finally-"

"Just tell me what happened and how you know!" He seethed.

Neji agreed.

"It's his brother...I heard him being called by that...it was snowing, too..." Gaara saw Neji close his eyes as he whispered over the phone, trying to remember.

"Isn't his brother dead?"  
"Apparently not." That was Gaara. The blonde scowled.

"How do you know this Neji!"  
Neji was probably thinking, or just pausing to make him wait as payback for the yelling.

"Neji...please..."

There was a sigh.

"I drempt it."

There was a long, akward silence.

"But it's not what you think, Naruto-kun!" He said pleading. "It wasn't just a dream, I-"

"It was! You had me worried for nothing!" He said, his voice quivering. He was about to hang up, when Neji spoke again.

"...I have to make you believe me..." He said slowly. Naruto rolled his eyes, a momvent he didn't need to see.

"It's probably you just hyped up on drugs."

Neji scoffed, Gaara chuckled slightly, but finally the brunette decided to ingor the blonde.

"...I know it's true..."

"Knowing isn't anything without proof..."

"I never would have thought you'd be the person to say that to me, Naruto-kun."

Another long silence, tenced.

"...how do you know you love Sasuke...?..." He said weakly. "...There's no proof." There should have been a gasp heard by Gaara and Neji, but there was nothing by silence.

"...I feel it Naruto..." He said, convincing the blonde. His voice craking due to staic. "...Like I know I love Gaara...and I know how you love Kakashi and Iruka...and..." He didn't need to say Sasuke.

"I'll meet you at your place in a 'sec. Ten minutes tops."

"But wait, Neji I-" But the line went dead.

* * *

Sakura Haruno's breath was becoming rapid as she slipped behind the alley wall.

_He looked so much like Sasuke..._ She though, mind not fully understanding what he eyes had seen.

But she knew it was Sasuke; not a human soul on earth could look so currupt. Espesically not Sasuke's...

She wondered why he had been carrying a gun, and why his eyes were so evil...she suddered at the thought of it.

"...Lee..." She whispered into her Motarola. "...please pick up..."

A rustle was heard behind her and she froze, her blood pounding in her veins.

She slapped her phone shut, pressing her back against the cold brick wall.

The pink haired girl watched the shadows become longer and thinner until she could here the footsteps of her persuer.

She tenced her fists, shrinking down lower and lower until she was cringed in a corner, eyes squinted shut.

_I hope this isn't...it.._

The figure stopped, she noted as she opened her eyes again, but then ran strait for her.

Five Feet Away.

Four...

Three...

Two..

One.

She squeezed her eyes shut again, but then knew there was no way she would die so easily. She lept up, face contorted in a snarl, and lept, slightly stupidly running and leaping for her attacker, who she knew to to be shorter by observation, not letting those self-defence classes go to waste.

The figure fell to the floor with a loud crash from a few trashbins that he had knocked over.

She was sure that that he was unconsious because he wasn't moving at all anymore. She stared from a distance at first, but then decided to make a quick run for it.

"Not so...fast." Rumbled a deep, meanecing voice. Suddenly, Sakura felt herself being whirled around and a gun pressed to her temple. But she was even more suprised by who was holding the gun.

* * *

**Kinda a filler, but Oh well...sigh...**

**BankotsuChick**


	21. Maby It'd be easier to see

**This is kinda random and mostly I was writing this when I was trying to figure out what was going on in the plot and what to do next. It's kinda weird...lol.**

**BankotsuChick**

* * *

Neji lept out of bed, his entire body aching and he winced as he sunk to the floor. 

"Neji, you can't leave!" Gaara growled, ceasing to rush to his side. "Your going to kill yourself..."

He rolled his eyes at the brunette's ignorance.

"...I have to...nnnmm...go to Naruto! You heard me! The minutes!"

"So...annoying..." Gaara said, tilting the Hyuuga's head up to his and capturing his lips in a pationette kiss.

"..nnn..G-Gaaara!" He whinned. "Please!"

Gaara sighed. "Go die if you want to...I guess." Neji almost could have hugged Gaara, but he didn't. The Hyuuga slid on his jeans, painfully, and then a jaket.

Gaara was suprised at the feeling he received as he watched the boy struggle in pain.

Did he really feel bad for him?

Had he gotten that caring?  
Then he remembered thats what love was. As soon as he did, he helped Neji up and, though a handful of nurses tried to stop the two, and rushed out the door as fast as they could.

* * *

Sakura knew, before she knew her attacker's identity, that he had been caught off gaurd for a moment and that he wouldn't shoot. She took this opportunity to knock him to the ground again. 

This was her chance to escape.

"S-Sakura...?"  
She turned, slightly shocked.

"Who are...you..." She asked, not coming closer to the figure, squinting her eyes. "Sasuke?"

"Yes, thanks for kicking me to the ground..." He groaned in pain as he stood up. "Twice."  
She blushed.

"Sorry Sasu-kun!" She flug her arms around him, but he pushed her off with a 'ow' and a 'leggo'.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you hurt, and where is Naruto?"  
Sasuke sighed. He didn't want to be remind of him right now.

"I have to go..." He said, limping. "...please don't tell Naruto where I am...please." The look he gave her was so filled with hurt, hate, and love that she didn't know what to say.

"Did you see that man...

She looked at Sasuke, she knew somthing was wrong, somthing that Sasuke could only do by himself so all she did was nodd and walk away. How ghostly had his presence been...when she turned back to see Sasuke leave, nothing was there. She wondered, then, if she had seen anything at all.

* * *

The intencity of the loliness that Sasuke's missing brought to Naruto was unbelievable. 

He never imagined that it would be like this; he loved Sasuke, Sasuke had become his lover, but there had been somthing missing then. The way he was so..._submissive. _It was like _rape._

And Naruto had hated that.

(FLASHBACK)

_His lips parted, just waiting, waiting, to be claimed. He no longer thought about it. He just did like he was told to do. _

_Like he was told he was born to do. _

_It was like the song of a caged bird, but no longer sweet and filled with wanting. No. It wasn't like that at all anymore. Somthings were born to be free. Some were not._

_He didn't want anymore. He didn't lust for anything anymore._

_He just did as he was told, standing there. Waiting. He would wait all alone too, because the world moved too fast now for a man who could no longer move; he would stand out in the rain until it washed him away, until he was called for again. Until he was wanted again. _

_Maby that was his perpous; maby he lived for others, but then he would remember that he wasn't that kind. He wasn't that nice. You'd think he'd be sad about it, but no, he wasn't. He might as well be glad it was this way. It was better. He didn't have to hurt anyone anymore._

_**I want to make you happy so much...even if it hurts me so much...**_

_He did not fear death like he did when usually he loved somone; he did not fear the unknown. Everything was unknown now, anyways. Everything including his past._

_Yes. _

_Now. _

_His arms would slip to his side, shoulder's limp, leg's quivering. His fingers would twitch, the ones trailing his body that were like the ones that were once gental, but these were now rough and cold, but he didn't care. He deseverd it. It might as well be him._

_**Whisper.**_

_**Whisper into my ear the song of love**._

_It's not like he wished for this now._

_It's not like that at all, you know. It wasn't his choice. But it's his life._

_He lets his wet shirt, soaked with sweat, be stripped from his shivvering body. He would lay there. He would stay and wait for it to be over. Like a dog. Submissive to it's owner. A creature that loves but fears him at the same time._

_He had lost all strenth in himself now...he starts to painfully think of his Aniki..._

_'You will never be anything. You will make nothing of your life. From now on, your whole life should be lived without any other perpous than to please others. It might make then want you a little more, aniki. But I doubt it.'_

_The words sunk in. Now he will only want to please_

_But it really dose hurt him...it makes him want to cry...when he remmebers the promise he will break that night. He told him he loved him but Naruto will never believe him now...when he leaves...when he dissobeys._

_**You tell it, you whisper but I can't hear you.**_

_**Is it you...**_

_**Or is it me?**_

_His body was beautiful. His thick, raven hair would shape his porcslen face. His hips were broader than you would have expected and as his belt was loostened, his shorts would cling to them casually. _

_The smooth chest under his shirt was thinner and much less muscular than you would have imagined, but flawless still the same._

_**You might as well shout it.**_

_**Shout it to the earth and the heavens so I can finally hear it.**_

_**And when I hear it...**_

_**I relize somthing.**_

_**Though it sounds different everytime...**_

_The lips that captured his own were bruising, like a void that swallowed him whole. It was suffocating, but he didin't need air anymore if he didn't have the will to breathe._

_Or the will to stay alive. Wasn't love supppose to be nice? A rescue from this horrible fear? Then he remembered that this was his way of saying he loved him one last time. It wasn't like naything he had ever expected. He felt weak._

_  
**It's the same song I've heard all my life**_

_**Dosn't make a difference that I'm hearing it again,**_

_**It just makes me know that**_

_**I havn't been listening.**_

_**But it dosn't really matter dose it?**_

_**I never understood.**_

_It was painful and he felt as though he could block it out, he knew his loved wantd this so he tried very hard, but he couldn't, though he would still stay._

_Like a animal being beaten. A dog being hit with a newspaper. It was being a man punished for sin._

_**I Guess I was...innocent...once...you're right...**_

_He curled into a ball, tears running down his face, until he finnally from asleep from fatigue._

_**But Now I know I'm Going to Leave For Ever...**_

_**And that was a long time ago.**_

(END FLASHBACK)

He knew Sasuke had been nagged by somthing, the face of his lover was distant and vauge like he barley knew anymore. Like Sasuke was some kind of person he would pay and then leave and never see again.

He had taken a shower because of this; he felt _dirty, _like he had taken advantage of the one he loved.

He always thought it would be different than it was.

At what point...had Sasuke lost his strenth?

The will to live...his love...had that all dissapeared? No, it hadn't all gone away. But it was replaced by some sadness that Naruto knew, sadly himself, Sasuke could only fix on his own.

He could never do anything to help.

* * *

Itachi Uchiha watched the younger Uchiha stuff his hands in his pockets to get away from the cold. 

He looked almost like a child with his cute pouting face. But Sasuke had stopped being a child a long time ago. Some would say he was never one at all. Itachi knew this wasn't true.

But he tried to believe it all the same.

_"Aniki, I want to hold your hand...I'm cold."_

_"Your not cold Sasuke...I know it.."_

_Sasuke pouted. "fine..." He huffed. "but I know you are...and I want you to be warm, Ita-sama. I want you to be happy."_

_A crystale flake drifted onto Sasuke's nose. The younger Uchiha jumped and tenced his fists._

_"...it's just snow, Sasuke. There is nothing to be afraid of." He paused. "I'm plenty warm already."_

_"...n-no your not...your cold, I-Itachi...maby this is why my Aniki is sad all the time, mmm?" _

_The older one flashed a grim smile._

_"I love you Aniki..." Itachi paused before he took the other's hand. Sasuke grinned. Itachi grinned slightly back._

_"Are you warm now, brother?"  
Itachi never answered him._

The older of the Uchiha brothers clutched the gun in his pocket.

_"Why do I hate you...Sasuke?"_ He wondered. He had always wondered this. _"Is it because you **are **happy and just do not **know it yet?"**_

He was sure he had yawned when he felt a tear in his eyes.

He was sure of it. So he wiped it away, sighed, and made his move twards Sasuke.

_"_I may not know why I hate you...but I am sure I do...and you will die tonight, Sasuke-kun..Aniki..."

* * *

**Yep, once again another cliffie! You guys are SO gunna suffer for not reveiwing enough! LOL! Till next time!**

**BankotsuChick**


	22. The love and trust that'll set him free?

**REVIEW BOTH CHAPTERS 21+22 PLEASE!!!!!!!!!**

**Once again, this is like a filler, but i think it's a pretty good filler.**

**BankotsuChick**

* * *

Naruto saw Temari's burnt orange Lamborghini and knew instantly it was Gaara who was driving it.

Neji was in the passenger seat, obviously in pain and trying to hide it with his oh-so-readable eyes.

"..Neji..." Naruto said, catching the Hyuuga who Gaara didn't as he stumbled out of the leather-clad seat, clutching his side. The red haird-boy glared and made a angered growl and stepped closer to Naruto, who looked offended, but only slightly as he backed away from the Hyuuga

"Where did exactly you see him? Because..." Gaara whispered, huddled in his jaket. "I'm cold..." Neji felt himself being pulled into a protective grasp, and crossed his arms.

"I don't know why we're ever...here..." Naruto shivered. "...I mean..Sasuke is gone, but maby he's at the store or somthing..."  
Neji glared. "Just trust me..."

* * *

Sasuke didn't know what to say or for that matter do when he saw Itachi for the first time in three very long, recouperation years after he had been sure he had murdered said sibling.

He was sure of it now; he had been guessing for sometime, but now he was sure.

He was in hell.

That was the only explination that he could possibley think of.

He had known it would happen all his life. He just had no idea when. But it might as well be now...right?

He didn't know weather Itachi had seen him or not and he even considered running, but then he remembered that...Only cowards run.

He was an Uchiha, and he wasn't going to live the rest of his life in fear. That would have been the greatest thing he would have received from Naruto.

"Itachi!"

* * *

Naruto heard Sasuke's voice but he didn't know how to take it.

He was afraid at first, sure, for Sasuke. Why would he be calling his brother's name? Neji was right?  
Apparently Uzimaki was the only boy to here the voice; Neji and Gaara were.._busy_... sitting on the park bench

and obviously needed their hearing checked...or had the slightest concern who was watching.

He rolled his eyes and stepped away from them, trying to ignor the bitting breeze.

_Sasuke!_

There was the Uchiha, he noticed as he pressed his back against the stone wall. And that must be his brother.

Those were the most frightning eyes he had ever seen. He felt bad for Sasuke and suddenly was overwhelmed

with the greatfulness that he didn't have a sibling.

* * *

Itachi Uchiha whirled around to see somone, but it wasn't who he expected.

He was sure it was his brother; the only other people who knew his name were dead, but his brother didn't look like that. His brother didn't look like that at all...

_He's so..._

Before they died his brother was kind

He was smart.

He was cleaver.

He was so...innocent..and Itachi had robbed him of that innocence.

Then he became afraid.

Lonley.

Impressionable.

Scared.

...alone...

But that wasn't the almost mature boy who stood feet infront of him.

He was stronger; by the looks of it times and times over less scrawney and better fed than he had been. He looked slightly taller and his hair was inches longer, so long he could pull it back in a pony-tail. But that would make him look just like Itachi.

_He's so..._

But it was his eyes that really frightened him.

They were unlike anything he had seen before. He felt a cold sweat breaking across his pale expression.

_He's so..._

Itachi couldn't place the change in his younger sibling. He just didn't know what to say. He didn't know what the emotion that was rising in his chest was, but it was annoying, nagging at his heart and his mind.

His eyes were fiery. His voice was stern. His stand was grounded.

Itachi knew that he himself had and would never look like that.

He wondered suddenly why.

Why couldn't be that him who's totally fearless and that confident? What made Sasuke like that?

"I can tell your wondering why I'm not like you, brother."

Itachi didn't respond.

"It's because I have someone I want to protect."

Itachi stood still.

"I have someone who meens the world to me.

Itachi held his breath.

"I'm in love."

* * *

Naruto heard what Sasuke said, his heart stopping. Sasuke loved him.

He was suprised, then, because he didn't believe it before. But now he did. He felt kind of ashamed. But then,

finally, after loving others his whole life, he felt liked. He felt loved.

Somthing told him he will always be loved.

He smiled to himself.

* * *

Sakura sighed. _23 is old...isn't it_. She stared at Lee from across the table, her eyes full of confusion

and slight anger. She was turning 23 tomorrow, and it was strange. She would have to get a higher paying job, and the fact that she had just moved in with Lee was strange. She wasn't a kid anymore.

She couldn't run around in all these insane adventures.

She had a life.

She sighed as she thought of how fussy her mother would get when she found out she didn't have a career.

Photaughraphy just wouldn't support the couple. Her parents would sigh in their usually dissapointed tone and

hate the fact that she still, though decreasing by the moment, loved the infamous Uchiha. They didn't perticuarly like Lee either, but that was to be expected. Her mother almost fainted when she saw those eyebrows.

She sighed as she unpacked yet another box and took out a glass framed picture with a dusty, crincled photo

underneath.

She blew off the dust and saw her as a child; so care free, so kind.

Then she remembered what she had done to Naruto and Sasuke...and she wondered what had changed.

_Why did it have to change...brother? Why?_

* * *

**I never wanted to hurt you I never did why dont you understand why do you hate me**

_I used to love you so much but you never loved me back_

**I did I loved you so much your right why did it change im so confused and now **

_You were never mean, you weren't really all that nice, you were just you and I loved you_

**I think I'm scared i ignored it but now I think you'll hate me please don't hate me please dont**

_I never though you'd hurt me...I'd never thought you cared enough,_

**...Cry...please you make me want to**

_I wish I was right like him..I wish you loved me like we love eachother...I wish...I wish...I wish..I wish..I wish.._

...**Cry...please I don't want to cry I want to be happy and laugh I really want to but it's so**

_mom used to tell me if I wish on a star..._

**Hard to face it somtimes I'll never be happy will I please just don't cry I hate it when you**

_Aren't you a star, Aniki? Like one of those little flickering stars far, far, away?_

**cry i know it makes you sad and I hate it i hate it I hate it now i hate everything happy?**

_You're not shinning very bright, you know. But maby if I wish you will? Aniki? _

**Happy that im all alone and all afraid why cant i get help i need it i hate to admitt it but i need it!**

_I wish you'll be ok and that none of that ever happened. Nobody died. We were all happy. _

**I'm sorry i cant understand wishes they don't come true they dont they died nothing will change your so foolish you just dont understand because the blood has been spilt its all over my hands its the same..**

**it will always be the same wishing wont change that they died and you will die...I will die**

_Maby, just maby nothing did change. You give me a hug and tell me you love me and we will be ok._

**Its not ok little brother I may want to love i may want to wrap my arms around you but i wont i wont its to dangerous im scared its reality live with the truth that it has changed it has all change but ill stop it brother ill stop it for you Ill end our miserable lives. **

**Because I Love you.**

* * *

Naruto thought Sasuke was a totally fucking asshole. But he was the bravest-goddamn bastard he could ever hope to know.

* * *

Sakura was hating the fact that she was always ended up caught in these kind of situations.

There they were, Sasuke and a man he was sure was a relitive, standing right before her, Naruto behind Sasuke's antagonizer and Sakura behind Sasuke. Sasuke couldn't see Naruto, she knew, and that man in the black coat couldn't see her, she knew, but she could see Naruto guesturing for her to run.

Sakura had learned many things that winter since Sasuke had come back.

Naruto taught her that love was the most important thing of all. That's why she stayed with Lee.

She knows that, from the Uchiha, that never to give up hope and that someone always loves you.

She knew that.

She had become braver.

Stronger.

She's not the little girl who fought over a crush with Ino.

She's not the little girl who took pictures of Sasuke with her first camera.

She's not the same person who would stay up late at night dreaming of Sasuke.

She's _not _the bitch who broke up a couple in love.

No. She's not.

She's Sakura Haruno.

And she's not afraid anymore.

Sakura learned that she's not many things that winter. But she's alot too.

She's a profession photographer ready to start her carrier.

She's a friend.

She's a girlfriend.

She's Sakura Haruno.

And little did she know, she was about to save Naruto and Sasuke's lives.

* * *

Gaara had finally persuaded Neji, who he was afriad would start to bleed again for he was already coughing and stumbling, to go back to the car, but that only bought him fifteen minutes until that annoying Hyuuga came back. He sighed, looking back once to Neji sitting in the car, scowl sprawled across his palid face.

Gaara's entire head, save his eyes, forehead, and slightly spikey red hair, was masked by the high coller of his jaket. He shivered, but, knowing he wouldn't have to worry for Neji was in a heated 200,000$ car, he let his shoulders relax before he wondered where the hell Naruto disapeared to.

He walked briskly for about a block and a half. No wonder the whole neighborhood was indoors. It was starting to snow again. Great. Now he felt _stupid_ ontop of this.

He rolled his eyes and wondered if it might just be better to fallow the stotic Hyuuga to the car. The raccoon-eye-shadow that lined his eyes was starting to smudge. Damn it.

Just then, as if a relief from his bordom, but terror at the same time, he froze.

Was that Sasuke?  
Had the drugged up Hyuuga been right?

Gaara, now sure of this more than anything in his life, decided he really did prefer sand over snow.

Itachi Uchiha knew he would die tonight. As pulled out his gun, he vaugly wondered why.

Not that, though, it mattered.

* * *

**I know, I'm just dragging it out loooonger and looonger...but don't worry, theres more chappies and-gasp- a sequel on the way.**

**IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUBMIT IDEAS FOR THE SEQUEL MESSAGE ME!!!**

**(Do I even have to ask to have you guys reveiw?)**

**BankotsuChick**


	23. Maby he's right he'll be alone again

**Well, I am very happy that it's gone this far!!!! Thanks for making it happen!!!**

**BankotsuChick**

* * *

"Why did you do it."

It was Sasuke's first, of many, many questions. Itachi didn't need to ask 'what' or 'I don't know', though he didn't know himself what kind of son would kill his own parents, then his whole clan.

He felt fear trickle down his spine like fingers working a marrionette.

There was a gut instinc telling him that he had to kill Sasuke, then possibly, himself. It would end all the sufferning of the Uchiha Clan, and the pain that Sasuke could endure in the future.

It was the only way to save him. It was all he could do. Right?

If only Itachi had known he could never be more wrong.

Sasuke glared and tightened his fists.

"Answer me you bastard!" He felt his face growing hot. "Tell me what the fuck would make you do that!"

Itachi never had felt angered like he had then. He approched Sasuke, backing the younger Uchiha against the brick alley wall. Sakura hid behind the nearest trash can. Naruto twitched with fear as he watched Sasuke's strong, guided expression lace with uneasiness.

Sasuke's eyes were burning with the effort to hold back the tears.

"...t-tell me I-tachi..." He growled, finding it painful to speak his brother's name. "...why did you kill mom and dad!"

_Mom and dad..._

Itachi hadn't heard those words since he was 15 and killed the Uchiha clan.

His heart stopped beating.

One.

Two..

Three...

It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair for him to feel all this pain and regret! Why not Sasuke?

_Oh yes...because he's in love._

"...I swear I should have fired again!" Sasuke seethed, his breathing encreasing. "I should have shot you again to make sure you were dead cold!"  
It hit Itachi like a stone.

_Why can't you just understand I'm sorry! Why, Why, Why!_

Itachi couldn't believe what he saw. Sasuke had started to cry.

It wasn't sobbing, nor was it to dramatic like he would have expected in a situation like this. The boy's eyes were closed, gently not sqinched shut so Itachi couldn't see the eyes that haunted his deepest nightmares.

It was very subtle. Itachi had said nothing. One, only one tear slid down his cheek, like a symbol of hate and dispare with such a passion that Itachi was for a moment frightened.

He panicked, pressing the silver gun to Sasuke's head. Sasuke's eyes opened slowly, the peircing gaze unreadble, frightning.

The shorter boy didn't say anything.

Itachi regained controll over his raging emotion.

"Sasuke...it's been a long awaited promise...hasn't it?" He whispered into Sasuke's ear, making the other tence.

"..."

"...It would be so easy to end our pain if I just pulled this trigger and sent us both to hell!"

"..."

"We're to men who have sinned and made deals with the devil!"  
"..."

"Mother and Father and even your pretty boy lover would-"

"Shut the fuck up!" Sasuke's voiced echoed off the walls of the alley. "You don't know when to just stop do you!" He had to reach up to his taller brother to do so, but he gripped both arms around his neck.

Itachi tenced his gun-weilding arm and didn't think twice before he slid his finger to the trigger. The slightest movment would cause it to fire.

* * *

Sakura tapped Naruto on the shoulder, startling him. He whirled around, half expecting to see Itachi, but he didn't and relaxed a little when he saw the pink haired girl.

"Sakura, you have to go home! Now!" She looked at him, slightly insulted. "No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"NO!"  
"YES!"

"NO!"  
"FINE!" He breathed, almost loud enough for the two Uchiha's to here them. Sakura put her finger to her lips in the gesture for silence.

He nodded, rolling his eyes, and peered at the two, wondering when he should intervene.

Sasuke hated to show it, but he was scared.

Naruto noticed Itachi's finger on the trigger and his entire body went rigid.

"We have to do somthing...now!" She whispered. Naruto nodded...but what could they do to save the life of his lover and Sakura's best friend?

Time was running out and all of the people in the area; Naruto, Sakura, Itachi, Sasuke Gaara, Neji and even the birds who had stopped singing knew it. Suddenly and idea struck the young photaughrapher. It was risky, sure, but she knew in her heart she had to do it, if, though, she could very well die.

* * *

_"I'm sorry it's just...not what we're looking for..right now...Sakura..."  
She sighed. It was just the same speach over and over. 'The lense was out of focuse'. 'My finger was in the way'. 'I couldn't think of anything'. It wasn't fair. She was always coming up with excuses. Why couldn't her life get real?_

_"...you can't actually want this as a career, can you? You can't even find 'the picture'."_

_How many times had that phrase hauted her dreams? _

_'The Picture'. It was her ticket, but now she would never find it. _

* * *

Rock Lee took out the plastic credit card that lay in the leather of his wallet, deep in the cotents of his army green ski coat. He knew Sakura was out, and that this would be a secret until he decided to unviel it.

No pressure...right?

He sighed, stepping inside the small elite store. This would be it. Every other penny from the last three years.

He had always known she was the one. The only that completed the picture. It was a Lee saying; to find the one who would complete your picture, and he knew she was it.

He had already selected the piece; it wasn't small, but not exactly large, and it shone with the beauty of her eyes. His best friends Shikimaru and Neji were the only ones who knew his secret, and they had helped him find it, but really they had just been there. He didn't need help. Now the only thing that guided him was love.

After filling out paper work and paying without regret eleven thousand dollars, he exited the store with nothing but a small black velvet box. He put his card back in his wallet, gazing at the first aniversity picture of him and Sakura. He smiled again. He was sure he had found his picture. But had Sakura?

* * *

Neji was reading a car map he found in the back seat of Temari's car, but he hadn't really been concentrating.

It was like his eyes were running over the page as the heat blasted him in the face, making him slightly unconfortable.

_Gaara-teme...you bastard._

He was scared, heart racing, thinking about running out and opening the door, but suddenly, he felt his windpipe tighten. What was happening? Could he be...

_You might not want to leave the hopstital. That bullet wound hit your ribs and barely missed your lungs..._

_If you leave and exert yourself, you might be overcome with pain, and not being able to breathe. Also, being out in the cold could could get you sick. In a weakened state, you could die from a simple flu._

_You heard me, Mr. Hyuuga, Mr. I-Hate-Nurses-and-don't-need-help-from-anyone, Mr. Stubborn. You heard me. You will die._

He felt almost like blood was rushing into his lungs, his ribs fracturing with every shallow breath. His head had already been feeling unusually hot, but now it was getting worse, almost unbearable. He tightened his grip on his chest, his other hand clutching his stomach. He was incredibly nautious. He didn't know what was happening, though, unvolentarily, he was calling for Gaara At the same time, the last thing Neji Hyuuga saw that day, peering out the window, was a man, a man in a blurry form, fall to the ground, blood slashing the cold, crisp air.

* * *

It was Sasuke's fault.

* * *

Itachi knew he was on the ground, but he knew he wasn't bleeding. _Damn brat. He was planning a little ambush, was he?_ Well, it served him right, he noticed, head throbbing. The little blonde who ran out and tried to attack him was surley dead. And with luck...He thought, noticing the stunned pink haired girl standing in the alley, in a matter of seconds she would be too.

* * *

It just wasn't fair.

Gaara's mouth was wide, and it took a while for his heart to start aching and his knees to start quivering.

It wasn't possible. Naruto wasn't dead.

Gaara was a rare type. He remained totally calm, though his mind racing. In a matter of seconds he reached into his pocket to wipe out his cell, but relized he had left it in the car. He was quick and dashed off to the lamborghini.

* * *

Naruto's vision was shifting. His head was light and the pain was only dull. He smiled, confident that he had saved Sasuke when he had knocked Itachi to the floor of the sidewalk, the man's head hitting the side of the ground. It didn't really matter that he had been shot. It didn't matter that everybody would be screaming and crying. It didn't matter that he was going to die.

All that did matter was that Sasuke was safe.

* * *

Sakura was sure it would work. She had _tried _to tell Naruto that it would be easiest to get help. She tried. She tried but it didn't work. She had told him moments before Sasuke gripped Itachi's collar and told him he'd die for what he did. Why couldn't she have called Sasuke's cell? It was in his pocket, she could have told him they were there to help him and what to do.

But no. Naruto, that fool. She shuddered. That love-struck fool. She stood there, not being able to think, the snow landing on her hair, watching the blood stain the snow on the floor. She started to shake uncontrollably. Staring at the orange-clad lump on the ground.

"Fuck this!" She hissed as she through her dead cell to the pavment. Naruto wasn't moving. He was really dead this time.

* * *

**Hahahhahahahaaaa! CLIFF-HANGER! I wanted 50 reveiws by now, but I don't so you shall SUFFERRRRRRRRRRRR...**

**BankotsuChick**


	24. Maby he's right he'll be without friend

_They say he was invincible_

_That nothing could hurt him_

_He was going to be ok..._

_Now that he found the love of his life_

_Nothing bad would happen_

_His love for him was like a sheild_

_Nobody would die. Nobody would cry anymore_

_There would be smiles_

_And finally laughter._

_The girl would find her picture and_

_marry him so they could start a family._

_The other would not be scared or sick_

_They would live like it was a dream._

_And when it would rain. _

_When it would rain_

_It would be safe. _

_He would hold him close_

_And tell him like his mother _

_Had._

_That he will be loved._

_And when it would snow_

_They would stay warm _

_All the risks_

_All the chance_

_It would be ok now_

_But..._

_But them I remembered_

_I woke up having this same dream_

_I was crying too._

_I was crying because it will never happen._

Sasuke couldn't remember being sad. He was too tired of being sad.

He only rememberd a shooting pain lancing through his heart. He gripped his chest. A thick anger clouded his vision, the ache in his heart pulsing through his body, the shaking fear entwining with the most powerful emotion he had ever felt in his life.

Hate.

It was hate. He hated Itachi more than he had in his whole life. He couldn't rest his eyes on Naruto's still body. He couldn't even find the strenth to go and see if Naruto was okay. He saw Sakura slowly making her way in his direction and it suprised him how he let her. How he didn't just pick up Itachi's gun and shoot her dead, dare she lay a finger on Naruto. He didn't picture himself shooting Itachi though.

He felt more like walking over the silbing and break all of his arms and legs, laughing as he screamed in agony.

The he would take out his pocket knife...

_No. Naruto wouldn't want me too. He's too kind._

That's when he started to cry.

Slowly, but deffinatly tears started trailing down his face. He then relized he didn't exactly know _why _he was crying.

It sounded absolutly awful, but even though he believed his lover to be dead, he couldn't make his heart sad when he thought of the blonde boy. He stared at Itachi, though he couldn't feel the anger anymore, as if it had vanished. He wondered why, he _needed to know. _

It didn't take long.

_"Do I have to carry the great Uchiha Sasuke up to my apartment?"_

_Naruto..._

"I..I..." Was all he could say. Then, as he turned his head painfully to look at Naruto bleeding, he relized with a deep agony _why _exactly he wasn't sad, angry, or upset.

_"Sasuke, you're my closest friend now..."_

He didn't feel bad anymore.

_"Let me get that...chocolate..off your face..."_

Sasuke watched Sakura through blurry eyes, like time had stopped and all he could see was her heaving chest and hear her penatrating sobs.

_"...I found the keys..."_

He didn't hate Itachi then.

_"You're really...beautiful, you know that?"_

He didn't feel sad.

_"Sasuke-teme...I like your pajamas..."_

He didn't really know _what _to think;

All he knew was that...

_"I don't want you getting sick, so put on your jacket."_

Through all the hate.

_"...so you slut...your back..."_

All the deception.

_"How could you..!"_

And all the passion.

_"Why the couch...Naruto?"_

And the love.

_"I love you..."_

_"I love you...too."_

The reason he didn't hate Itachi...why he didn't feel sad or angry...was because he loved Naruto so, so much.

Their love could never be a sad thing. Naruto just wasn't that person.

And once he knew that, he walked over the boy and started to cry.

Gaara raced through the streets to his sister's car where he felt a cold sweat break across his forehead. Neji...

_Neji...I told you to stay back..._

He tore open the door and felt his face growing hot as he lay the side of his head to his chest. He breathed as he heard the faint heart beat, but it was so...so...faint. He didn't know what to do; Naruto or Neji?

"...Oh...Sasuke I'm sorry," He said as he revved the engien. "...but you would do the same thing for Naruto..."

He sighed, stepping on the gas knowning that it was true.

Sakura was crying, she was crying so hard that she couldn't think strait. But she wasn't crying so much for her loss. She was crying for Sasuke's. She saw him sitting a few feet back, the snow falling over his raven hair. She was about to cry harder, her arms drapped over Naruto's chest.

There was coughing, and a pressure on his chest. He felt his throat getting tight when he breathed. The weight on his chest made it worse. He tried to move, but his shoulder, inches from his neck, was flaming.

He felt the blood gushing and it made him nautious.

_Sasuke...Sasuke...Sasuke...Sasuke...where are you?_

He knew the raven haired boy-who seemed to cry alot lately-was crying again. He hated the thought of the boy crying over him again.

_I was about to forget about you Sasuke...I was going to let myself die..._

He would never let Sasuke down like he did all the people in his life. Never. He didn't have the will to lift his head or even open his eyes. Naruto, with the strong will to stay alive, fell uncounsious. Sasuke and Sakura, eyes blurry with scornful tears, hadn't noticed a difference.

Itachi, who was in alot of pain for the dullness had worn off and the emmence agony of hitting his head against the sidewalk started to sink in, he bit his tounge hard-_hard_-to try and cease any pain.

No use.

He, in red, red vison, slowly lifted himself off the ground where he was feet behind a sobbing sibling. He pushed away that caring big brother vibe-slightly digusted he had it in the first place, but he bent down anyway, picking up the gun that had skid across the concreat. It was chipped. But he could still use it.

**I broke it yes you heard me i cant fix it either i tried everything but it dosn't work somtimes i would wonder why but i dont anymore theres no use in trying when its never gunna happen-**

**never...its like everything in my life. i feel like i could hold it in my hands the warmth seeping through my body i hate it but i love it its so warm and then i relized its all in my head its all a dream you see thats why i hate it i hate dreams...**

**there not real i dont care mother you said dreams were important like light for a plant i just dont understand and thats why i dont care i dont understand...anything...anymore...not even the fact...that...holding it in my hands isn't real...its broken... all bloody but that dosn't meen it's warm now no i would laugh at the fool who this holds truth blood is never warm its cold now why is it so cold but its my fault... so happy now dark... what i was holding was your heart...its just like i said it used to make me happy but now im sad...**

**so very...very...sad...**

Sakura was still concious enough to see Itachi aim the gun behind Sasuke's back. She glared, but she was at an angel. He could barely see her out of the courner of his eyes. She saw, heart leaping out of her chest, his fingers tighten on the trigger. She slowly inched away out of his veiw and stood up behind him. One...Two...Three...

"SASUKE LOOK OUT!"

Kiba Inuzuka had been quite upset lately.

Shino had-_sigh_-moved out and he was lonely living by himself. Even Akamaru wasn't the best company anymore. He had been partying alot more than usual now and once again he had a throbbing head ache. That had also been the base of the best friend's fight, and now he felt worse.

He decided it would be best to call Shino, because he needed somone to talk to and Sasuke, that bastard, wasn't home. He wasn't around latley anyway.

But he need an asprin..._now. _Relizing how empty his apartment was once again, he stepped out the door only to see Hinata standing there in tears.

"...Hinata...-kun..." He said, blushing as the girl threw her arms around his neck. "...what are you..."

For some reason or another, he knew what that long-time-friend was going to say...

"It's Neji-sama!" She said. "He's back in the hosptial and this time I think...well..." She burried her head in his shoulder. He slid his hand to her back in a tight hug.

"It's okay...I'm sure..." But he wasn't sure. That was the problem. "Maby we'll go see Naruto and ask him..." He saw Hinata freeze at the name. "...N-n-Naruto...c-chan...isn't home..."

_Could that have anything to do with..._

Shikimaru Nara knew Rock Lee was suppose to call him again, but he had been slightly troubled by the way he and his girlfriend Ino Yakamana were acting.

_"...Lee...what's wrong?"_

_"...I can't find Sakura.." _

_He paused._

_"I was going to..."_

He shivered.

_"Ino? Who are you calling?"  
"Sakura...but she's not answering...anymore..."  
_

And then Kiba who had been looking for Sasuke...then Hinata and Naruto...where the hell were they?

Were they okay? Kiba, out of nowhere had a disturbing notion. Were they...still...alive?

Sakura was still holding onto Itachi when the shock had worn off. Was he still concious? Her arms were constricted tightly around his waist and the gun had stopped skidding against Sasuke's bare calf.

The cold touch shocked him slightly, and the tears stopped flowing. His heart was cold again the moment he took his eyes off Naruto's body.

"You..." He hissed, his breath ridged. "...his blood..." Itachi shoved the girl off of him, her head hitting the ground hard. Sasuke looked for any vauge signs of movement, but there were none. Sakura probably wouln't know what happened until either he or Itachi were dead.

Itachi's head was bleeding now and his entire world was spinning violently. He whirled around on shaking feet as he scrambled, stumbled, for his rifel. But he stopped cold as he felt himself in the line of fire.

"Sasuke...remember we're brothers..." He seethed, relaxing his shoulders. Sasuke shook his head. "The aniki I knew...wasn't like this!"

**breathe breathe breathe i cant cant catch my breath i cant breath...i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you i love you! I'M SORRY SASUKE! I LOVE YOU!**

**"**YOUR NOT HIM!" And with tears sparkling off his eyes as he squeezed them shut, he fired.

_Owari..._

"Kakashi-sama!" Iruka hollered. "Kakashi!"

"What is it..." The masked man grumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"...Naruto and Sasuke are _gone_..." He said, looking worried. Kakashi sighed.

"They'll be...fine"

"How do you know!"

"Think about it."

"Kakashi!"

"...think about it. You know _Naruto..." _He paused. "...and I know Sasuke."

Sakura's head was throbbing to the pulse of her heart. The whole scene around her was blurry as hell and she gripped her head. Her chest was painfully reminded of the digital camera resting on a strap around her neck that she had come in contact with.

She saw the figure she knew to be Sasuke standing by Itachi's form as she sat up wearily. She took another look at Naruto, her heart doing a belly-flop, before she came to stand over Sasuke, and somehow she knew he knew she was there.

"...Is he...dead?" She whispered, in a sighing breath. Sasuke didn't move. He stared at Itachi for a long, long, time. His eyes were fixated, his breathing incredibly shallow and weak.

Suddenly, there was a shudder in the body and the older Uchiha coughed up blood. Sakura gasped.

"...s-so...b-brother...you come to stand over me...as..t-this is..." He coughed, lood trickling down his chin. "The last night I lie beneath the sun?"

Sakura hadn't noticed it before, but as she gazed on Itachi's pale skin, she saw the blood-red sun radiate off him.

She couldn't help feeling sad. It was getting Naruto off her mind.

"...Itachi...why...?" He whispered, crouching almost down to the other. It was like nothing Sakura had seen before. Itachi's head, laying in Sasuke's lap as the younger Uchiha's lap. She could see the regret burning in Sasuke's eyes.

But he had to do it. Naruto was dead because of him.

"...remember...it..." Sasuke's eyebrows knitted in confusion.

"...remember what...Itachi..." He spoke with such an emotion that Sakura, nor Sasuke himself could place it.

"...is that really why you became cold...Sasuke-kun? Sasuke _aniki?_" Sakura heard Sasuke gasp slightly. What? What had happened that Sakura didn't know about it?

"...is it _my _fault you're such a heart...l-less...bastard? Or is it because of what _mother_-chan said to you?"

"NO!" Sasuke cried, his voice higher and louder. "Stop it!" Itachi tried to laugh, but her coughed, blood gushing from his wounds. Sasuke didn't move though.

"You're cold because you can't stand it!"

Teeth clentched in pain, Sasuke's tear's dripped onto Itachi's face. The tear shed by Sasuke was the bond they shared as brothers.

"...you can't stand what?" Sakura asked meekly as if she was intruding. It was like Sasuke hadn't even known she was there.

"...Sakura?" He shook his head. "...y-you shouldn't be here!" She tenced her fists.

"Sasuke you have to let people be there for you once in a while!" She said, grasping his shoulder.

"...g-go ahead...Sasuke...tell her...why your so cold all the time...why you've been cold all your life! It's not my fault is it?"  
Sasuke twitched.

"Its because mother always said she loved you! She said you _always will be loved!"_

She didn't understand. Sasuke hated how rediculous the stament said. How could being loved make him said?  
"You thought she was the only one who would ever love you! After she was gone, you thought you didn't have anyone!" Sakura didn't understand.

"But you were wrong weren't you Sasuke..."

"Naruto!"

Naruto was barly lifting his head off the ground.

"You were wrong."  
Itachi smirked.

"You're right you know...because you forgot somone, Sasuke." The sibling said as he weakened eylids shut.

"Who did I...f-forget Itachi?" His voice cracked and he bit his lower lip as stinging tears dripped down his face.

"You forgot that I...loved you Sasuke...and I always will."

He coughed more blood. Sasuke held him closer. He finally knew the truth.

"One more question, brother..." Sasuke said, looking up to the dying sun. "..why did you k-kill them?"  
Itachi smirked, his awful, all knowing smirk.

"...you'll find out...one..day"

"Itachi please tell me!"  
But he was gone.

Sasuke didn't move for hours, the silence overpowering the mourning loss. He sat in the same spot, whispering words to the quite other, running his fingers through his hair.

It had been about three hours, and it was time to leave. Naruto put a hand on his shoulder.

"...it's okay Sasuke..."

Sasuke nodded, kissing his brother on the forehead and watching for his eyes to open, but then he remembered they never would again. Sakura was behind them, and she saw Sasuke's expression as he turned to Itachi one last time.

It wasn't hate anymore. It wasn't regret or sadness. It was somthing that gose beyond what she would ever understand. And she knew it. She watched how the red sunlight framed his face and the snowflakes clug in small portions to the raven haired bangs that fell over his forehead. There were still tear-stains, but it looked like he could no longer cry.

**The ice has melted, can't you see...**

**The water running down my face?**

She felt her heart leep as she pulled her camera up to her eyes and squinted through the magnifying lense.

She smiled as she heard a 'click'. _Thats the one._


	25. Remebering there's no such fairtale end?

**...Sniff...I totally cried when I finished this...**

* * *

It was the end of summer. The heat was warm, not hot, perfect weather for cargo shorts and a navy blue sweatshirt. And maby an orange track suit too.

There were two boys left in the park that day, sitting there, hands entwined in one another, arm over shoulder.

The older one laughed as the first orange leaf drifed onto the top of the raven-haired's head. He pouted.

"The wedding's in a week you know." The blonde mused over a coffee. Sasuke nodded. "And I still don't have anything to wear..."

"Mall on Saturday? After work?"

"Mall on Satuday, after work, it is then."

"With Neji and Gaara? God knows they don't have anything half decent..." Sasuke smirked and snuggled up to his blonde lover.

"...Of course..."

Naruto blushed and fumbled with the coffee, tilting the cup until it spilt on Sasuke's sweatshirt.

"Ah! Hot!" Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Your so girly."

"Idiot!"

"Asshole!"

"Stupid!"

"Phycotic!"

"Dobe!"

"Bastard!"

"..."

"..."

"...Uzimaiki..."

"...Uchiha..."

"Naruto."

"Sasuke."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

* * *

**...Sniff...snifff...This is really sad...I've been working on this story for EVVVVER and now its OVVVERRR! (sigh) by the way, the sequel's going far! It's gunna be pretty good too! Should I give you the title...?...**

**_Hard to Forget.._**

**Yeah, I know, you don't get it, but you never get the title until you read it Silly Reader!**

**By the way, Its going to be alot more explosive (if thats possible) than Will Be Loved. ****I need a beta reader for the new sequel. Message me about being the beta reader...you get to see the chapter and updates before everyone eles****(it is implied that you reveiw the last chapter...right...?) Wow im annoyin...**

**BankotsuChick**


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